Israel has an "informal peace" with the Arab world because of the shared threat posed by Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Time magazine on Thursday in a lengthy interview that featured on the publication's cover.
The interview was part of a lengthy profile piece on Netanyahu and was conducted ahead of an important milestone in his career: Netanyahu is set to become Israel's longest-serving prime minister later this month.
TIME's new cover: "Only the strong survive." How Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu is testing the limits of power https://t.co/wmtLUAulGr pic.twitter.com/JHp2NwbHGG
— TIME (@TIME) July 11, 2019
Netanyahu said that Tehran's regional aggression and ongoing efforts to entrench itself in Syria and other hotspots have created a de facto alliance that helped Israel's image in Arab capitals, including in states that have refused to have any official contact with Israel.
"Once you eliminate the idea of eliminating Israel, you can solve the problem [of peace]," Netanyahu told Time. "In many ways, the Arab governments around us have already moved," he said.
He stressed that this shift was made possible not because of Israeli concessions but because Israel proved itself as a net plus for the region, and as a force to be reckoned with. "The strong survive. Strong and smart," he said.
"For so many years, people first of all believed that the cause of all the conflicts in the Middle East was the Palestinian-Israeli conflict," Netanyahu said. "Well, that's gone."
Netanyahu praised US President Donald Trump for taking the US out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. "Obviously I agree with him completely, and I appreciate the fact that he acted on this," Netanyahu said.
He further stressed that his sole focus was on securing Israel, not his hold on power, despite the potential trial he might face in three corruption cases. "I don't look at my survival," he told the magazine. "I look at the survival of the country, its durability, its future."
