JERUSALEM (NYTIMES) - Israel will host a historic summit this weekend with the top diplomats from the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Bahrain, a sign of how quickly the realignment of Middle Eastern powers is accelerating as Israelis and some Arab governments find common cause not only over Iran but in navigating the new global realities created by the Ukraine war.

Unimaginable half a decade ago, the high-level meeting reflects the new political reality created when Israel sealed landmark diplomatic agreements with the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco in 2020. Planned for Sunday (March 27) and Monday, it is set to be the first meeting with top officials from three Arab countries on Israeli soil, and highlights how Israel - which needed the United States to help broker the 2020 accords - can now become a bridge between Washington and certain Arab governments.

The groundbreaking visit will add the three foreign ministers to a very short list of high-level Arab visitors to Israel - starting with Anwar Sadat, the Egyptian president who shocked Israelis by flying to Israel in 1977 and calling for peace in an address to the Knesset, or parliament. Hosni Mubarak, Sadat's successor, visited in 1995 to deliver a eulogy at the funeral of slain Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. King Hussein of Jordan also visited Israel several times, including for Rabin's funeral.

The upcoming meeting will provide a forum to discuss both disagreements and shared concerns about the Ukraine war; the possibility of a new nuclear deal with Iran; and the need to avoid a surge of violence in Israel and the occupied territories next month, when three important Jewish, Muslim and Christian holidays will overlap.

The Israeli foreign minister, Yair Lapid, will host the conference, which his ministry said Friday would bring together US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Emirati Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, and Nasser Bourita, their Moroccan counterpart. Officials have not disclosed where the leaders are meeting.

The planned gathering demonstrates how relations between these countries and Israel have moved far beyond symbolism, said Yoel Guzansky, a former Israeli official and an expert on the Gulf at the Institute for National Security Studies, an Israeli research group.

"In many ways, Israel is the center - the epicenter - of all kinds of developments that are taking place," Guzansky said. "Israel is the go-between, not just between Russia and Ukraine, but apparently between some of the Arab countries and Washington."

The meeting will take place against the backdrop of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and will give Blinken a chance to encourage Washington's Middle East allies to align with US efforts to isolate Russia.

Like Saudi Arabia, the UAE has come under heavy US pressure to raise its oil production to help reduce the world's reliance on Russian gas. It also angered Washington by abstaining from a US-backed UN Security Council resolution denouncing Russia's invasion, and also by recently welcoming President Bashar Assad of Syria, whose diplomatic isolation the United States is seeking to maintain.

Israel - though praised by Washington for its role in mediating between Russia and Ukraine - has also avoided sanctioning Russia or condemning it too harshly. And Morocco, which relies on grain supplies from both Russia and Ukraine and is facing a growing economic crisis, has also resisted US expectations to condemn the Russian invasion.

The meeting also comes as Western-led negotiations are trying persuade Iran to scale back its nuclear program - an effort that Israel has criticised because it fears this will lead to a deal that does not adequately restrict Iran.

It has become increasingly clear that shared fears of a nuclear Iran - as well as shared concerns about the perceived retreat of the United States from the region, and the opportunities afforded by greater economic ties between Israel and the Arab world - now seem to be a greater priority for several Arab governments than an immediate resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"Israel is the only one that, kinetically perhaps, is taking on Iran - in Syria, in Iraq, in Lebanon, in Iran itself," Guzansky said.

Israel was ostracised for years by all but two Arab countries, Egypt and Jordan, as much of the Arab world refused to normalize ties until the creation of a Palestinian state. But that changed in 2020, when Israel established diplomatic relations with the UAE and Bahrain and reestablished them with Morocco.

The need to avoid a new wave of violence between Israelis and Palestinians is nevertheless expected to be discussed at the summit, analysts said.

Once unthinkable, public visits by senior Israeli officials to the Gulf States and Morocco have become frequent, and even expected.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett of Israel visited the UAE in December and Bahrain in February, where he met with the countries' rulers. The trips followed several visits to the Gulf and Morocco by Israeli ministers, including Lapid, the foreign minister, and Benny Gantz, the defense minister.

Gantz signed memorandums of understanding with both his Moroccan and Bahraini counterparts, the first such defense agreements between Israel and Arab countries. The deals will make it easier for the three countries to trade arms and military equipment, and to coordinate militarily.

Trade between Israel and the UAE increased roughly 20-fold in 2021, and Israel has also said it will post a military officer to Bahrain as part of a regional alliance given the task of combating piracy.