Bibi, with a little help from friends like President Trump, has once again deftly navigated the legal, electoral and political systems in Israel to cement his position and that of his coalition for at least the next four years. Netanyahu would have to be a bumbling idiot to blow this prospective coalition. And no one has ever accused him of either bumbling or idiocy. If Bibi continues the policy of "creeping settlements" and avoids a "blitzkrieg" of annexation, we will all likely act like frogs in a warming bucket of water. And all that will be left to do is to redraw the maps.
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Lost in the hurricane of news and “fake news” coming out of Washington was the announcement and signature on Thursday, October 12 of a reconciliation agreement between the two Palestinian movements Fatah and Hamas. The agreement, which was mediated and guaranteed by Egypt, was ten years in the making after Hamas violently expelled Fatah from Gaza in 2007. Inclusion of the terrorist designated Hamas may be a ready made excuse for the failure of Trump's Middle Eastnegotiating prowess.
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The Israeli encirclement of Jerusalem and announcement of more settlement housing makes the prospect of a two state solution increasingly impossible. If no solution between Israel and the Palestinians is possible, then we need to adjust our thinking. And by calling into question the Palestinian State, what are the Israelis saying about the future of their own state of Israel
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“The Palestinian issue originally achieved strategic importance for the US primarily as a result of the Cold War and the US-Soviet competition for allies in the strategic Middle East. With the end of the cold war there has been a sometimes-serious debate about just how important the issue is to the United States. For the most part its importance has been assumed. Everybody knows it is important – but is it really important to us? And what about Israel?
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President Trump has revived the call to move our Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The original reasons for locating in Tel Aviv were practical and twofold: security after the 1948 Arab Israeli war, and the fact that the Israeli government was initially located in Tel Aviv. But then the Israelis moved their government to Jerusalem and, for the most part, security was established in the land. Our Embassy, however, stayed in Tel Aviv. Now the location of our Embassy is a red flag that could block our moves to discredit and defeat ISIS.
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At their meeting tomorrow the match-up will be uneven. Bibi does his homework and will know precisely what has been going on in the White House and the Congress. He will be better informed than his interlocutors, including the President. His intelligence on the Middle East region as it impacts on Israel is better than ours, and his attention to detail makes him a formidable negotiator. Bibi has a lot in common with President Trump but has been at it a lot longer. If there is a clash, we will probably not see it. But if President Trump thinks he can bully Prime Minister Netanyahu, Trump better be prepared to lose.
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