Israeli PM fails test

BARAK Ravid revealed on Sunday that a year ago there was a secret summit attended by then US secretary of state John Kerry and three Middle Eastern leaders – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II.

At the summit, Kerry outlined a regional peace initiative aimed at advancing an Israeli-Palestinian agreement with the support of the Sunni Arab states.

The initiative included Netanyahu’s main demand, that the Palestinians recognise Israel as a Jewish state, but even under these terms, Netanyahu was reluctant to support the proposal.

Ravid’s report clarified the basis on which Netanyahu, after the summit, conducted talks with Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog to possibly change the make-up of the coalition. Those contacts fell through, and Netanyahu instead took Yisrael Beiteinu into the coalition and buried for good the chances for a diplomatic move. The disappointment led the Obama administration to support UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which established the principles of a future agreement, condemned Israel’s settlement policy and caused the Netanyahu government embarrassment.

Now it emerges the summit gave Netanyahu a rare chance to extract Israel from the diplomatic stalemate. But he failed this leadership test. He preferred the political comfort of curling up with his right-wing base, led by his rival Naftali Bennett.

Netanyahu kept these developments a secret and, through close associate Natan Eshel, he blamed Herzog.

Netanyahu trashed the Kerry initiative and evaded fulfilling the promises he made to Kerry, Abdullah and Sisi to make gestures to the Palestinians in the territories. At the moment of truth, the prime minister preferred his partnership with Bennett, who is dragging Israel to the abyss of annexation and apartheid, over the chance to advance the two-state solution with regional backing. – Haaretz, Jerusalem