Netanyahu Returns: Will Mideast Peace Have a Chance?

According to i24 news, an Israeli news site:

“Bin Salman listed three main demands, all referred to Washington: an affirmation of the U.S.-Saudi alliance, a commitment to follow through on weapon supplies as though Saudi Arabia were a NATO-like country, and an agreement that will allow the Saudis to exploit their extensive uranium reserves for a restricted civil nuclear program.”

In the past, the Saudis have consistently pointed out that Israel had to make peace with the Palestinians before they would make a move. This is no longer the case.

Today, the Saudis have decoupled a normalization agreement from progress on an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

In December 2016, I wrote in The American Spectator:

“The Iran Deal has so endangered the security of both Israel and Saudi Arabia that both governments are becoming more open about improving ties. ... The idea that the Saudis are meeting with the Israelis tells me that peace will eventually happen. ... Anwar Sadat refused to wait for a Palestinian State until he got the Sinai back. Saudi Arabia cannot afford to wait either.”

Someone needs to ask President Biden if he believes that Saudi Arabia’s three demands are worth a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

I recently finished Netanyahu’s autobiography Bibi: My Story. In the book there were several interesting stories.

During the Clinton and Obama administrations, Prime Minister Netanyahu was routinely pressured to give concessions because both administrations believed that Netanyahu was the main obstacle to peace and not the Palestinian leaders Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas.

According to Netanyahu’s memoir, President Clinton openly interfered in the 1996 Israeli election and tried to defeat Netanyahu. President Obama threatened Prime Minister Netanyahu in their first Oval Office meeting.

In his memoir, Netanyahu wrote, Obama told him: “You know, people often underestimate me. But I come from Chicago, where I had to deal with tough opponents.” After that, President Obama made a gesture to emphasize his threat.

In the Cracking the Netanyahu Code, Israeli journalist Mazal Mualem wrote in her book that President Obama gestured that he was going to slit Netanyahu’s throat in that meeting.

I wonder if President Obama spoke to any other foreign leader like that.

Another interesting fact was that Prime Minister Netanyahu managed to build a decent relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In 2016, the Obama administration abstained as the Security Council passed Resolution 2334, which was very hostile to Israel.

According to Netanyahu’s book, the Obama administration was planning another anti-Israel resolution before Obama left office. Netanyahu wrote that the second resolution did not happen because of Russia’s Security Council veto.

Netanyahu argued that going to Congress, and opposing the Iran Deal, improved his standing among Democrats. Arab leaders told him the speech was the “turning point in their willingness to strengthen ties with Israel.”

In the book, Netanyahu cites a 2016 Gallup poll that his March 2015 speech did not hurt him among Democrats. According to Gallup, approval for Israel among Democrats went up from 49% in February 2015 to 53% in February 2016.

According to Jared Kushner’s memoir Breaking History: A White House Memoir, Netanyahu stayed at the Kushner home and read Charles Dickens’ classic novel Great Expectations.

I didn’t like the book in high school, but there is probably no novel that can better explain why progressives don’t like Netanyahu.

In the book, the protagonist, Pip, represents Bibi, while his love interest, Estella, represents the Palestinians. Miss Havisham was a bitter old woman who was left at the alter by her fiancé.

She cannot let go of the past and has never taken off her wedding dress. Out of revenge, she encourages her adopted daughter, Estella, to torment Pip and her other potential suiters, out of spite.

Veterans of the Clinton and Obama administrations, like Miss Havisham, cannot forget the failed negotiations of the past. They have no interest in taking a different approach.

In the end, Miss Havisham’s wedding dress accidently catches fire and kills her. The wedding dress is a symbol of how progressives must break with the past to accomplish peace.

The novel also has a solution for peace in the Middle East. In the beginning of the book, Pip is an orphan who helps Abel Magwitch.

In return, Magwitch secretly funds Pip’s rise to be an English gentleman. Pip was a child at the time, and he could not have known that this act of kindness would change his life.

All 22 Arab states, including a future Palestinian state, will eventually make peace with Israel because they know that Israel has a lot to offer them.

Much like Estella in the novel, Palestine will likely be the last state to make peace.