"Yitzhar in exchange for Bushehr" – this was the formula proposed to us in 2009 by Rahm Emmanuel, former US President Barack Obama's chief of staff. If you want our support against the ayatollah regime's nuclear program – give us, or rather give the Iranians, Palestine.
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This equation wasn't even groundbreaking at the time. Starting in the late 1960s, Arab states charged a consistent Palestinian tax for any deal with Israel. Every Western leader was forced, as a precondition for diplomacy with Riyadh, Qatar, or Damascus, to publicly denounce Israel, support the Palestinian refugees, or later on – transfer exorbitant amounts of money to the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian issue was the entry ticket to the Middle East. If you didn't champion the Palestinian cause, you weren't welcomed into the club.
Somewhat ironically, Iran's growing strength was the primary tool used by Benjamin Netanyahu to fundamentally change the rules of this regional game. As Netanyahu has described, his speech in the US Congress, which saw an Israeli prime minister dare stand up to the leading superpower in its own house and considerably sway American public opinion, inaugurated the Copernican revolution he spearheaded in the region.
In the Middle East and many countries across the globe, leaders largely discarded the Palestinian lie in favor of the benefits of peaceful relations with Israel. For the first time, under the banner of the "Abraham Accords," Muslim states recognized our national rights and historical roots in the region. This diplomatic tsunami surged onward as European and South American countries recognized our biblical and historic capital, Jerusalem, and largely stood alongside Israel in international forums.
Netanyahu's illustrious diplomatic legacy, the fruit of laborious efforts, is now in danger of collapse. The Obama equation is making a revised comeback: "Eviatar in exchange for Bushehr." Obama's protégés in the new administration aren't wasting time. With the ink yet to dry on the letters of congratulations to the Bennett government, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke for a second time with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and reiterated that "practical steps for the Palestinians" have been agreed upon. The details were hashed out in Rome this week, not far from Vienna, where the nuclear deal with Iran was being simultaneously revived.
But what happens in Vienna – won't stay in Vienna. The Palestinian issue, which once again has been propelled to the top of the regional and international agenda, will only bring old-new tidings – absolute de-legitimization of Israel as the state of the Jewish people and murderous jihadist terror.
Buses don't blow up overnight, but the spirit of the Oslo Accords is once again blowing through our region as the dominant paradigm. These winds are also undermining the foundations of the new peace deals with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. It's not for nothing that the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, echoed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in congratulating Iran's newly elected president and wishing "the Islamic republic and our bilateral relations stability, continuity and prosperity." All of the players can sense this old-new change of direction in the neighborhood and are acting accordingly.
In contrast to the Netanyahu era – and this is a real danger – today the American administration is playing against an empty net. Lapid's promise to keep disagreements "behind closed doors" is essentially a declaration of concession. It means forfeiting Israel's only leverage over American public opinion, and with it any tangible ability to truly effect change.
Similar to the Oslo era, the Palestinian doctrine has many faithful representatives in the Israeli government. Blinken doesn't need to sweat. The foreign, defense, and finance ministers in Israel support a Palestinian state and amending the nation-state law; Nitzan Horowitz, the country's health minister and member of the diplomatic-security cabinet, views IDF officers as war criminals; and all members of the coalition are of course preoccupied with civil matters. They are leaving the diplomatic process, as we saw on Tuesday, to MK Mansour Abbas.
Similar to its apparently singular focus on the coronavirus pandemic, this government seems to only care about the Palestinian issue. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is serving as an excellent government secretary, such that the justification for appointing Shalom Shlomo to that position this week isn't exactly clear.
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