The coming elections threaten to cause harm not just because of the financial waste and the political paralysis they will cause. They could also harm the public's trust in the democratic regime's capacity for action. In an election, the public is supposed to vote for its preferred government policies, but this time, as with three previous and miserable rounds, no serious discussion of any serious issue will take place. It is not just that the public won't be choosing between clear alternatives; It stands to reason that outside of presenting itself in a positive light ahead of the fifth elections, the government that is appointed won't know what to do with the mandate it receives. There is no real public debate, and it's highly unlikely the nominees are giving much thought to anything beyond how best to maintain or gain power.

The election campaign focuses on personalities, gossip, and provocations at a time when Israel must decide on three important issues – one domestic, one security-related, and one political, each of them with their own ethical, social, and political dimensions. Israel must decide how to rehabilitate the economy, how to deal with Iran and its emissaries, and how to conduct itself vis-à-vis a far less convenient and understanding US administration.

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Economic rehabilitation does not begin and end with reopening the market. It requires differential social decisions and opens Israel up to an opportunity for fundamental reforms that can only be carried out in times of major crisis. So, for example, the compensation system for epidemic damage in times of scarcity allows for an intermediate stage of subsidized work over state-funded idleness. So, for example, the government can, with calculated sector rehabilitation guidance, enable the modernization of a labor market that has long been held back by political interests. Social and ethical decisions must be made so that state resources are allocated in a way that ensures Israel's unemployed are not concentrated in a certain age group, ethnicity, sector, or place of residence in the periphery.

The violent confrontation in Syria and western Iraq with the security challenge of Iran and its emissaries was fully backed by the United States under President Donald Trump. This backing helped to deter Iran from responding to Israeli attacks, which were carried out at no real strategic cost. They allowed for the consolidation of a national consensus in Israel on the main focus of the covert "war between wars." Israel must assume Iran's response will grow bolder once US President-elect Joe Biden, who has voiced his desire to return to the nuclear deal, takes office. With less US support, Israel must consolidate a policy that serves it well absent a national consensus.

With Biden and his administration expected to restore the focus to the Palestinian issue, Jerusalem must prioritize either the Palestinian or the Iranian issue. Tensions with the administration on both fronts will make it harder for Jerusalem to negotiate on either. Politicians must take this balance into consideration in the election campaign and avoid hasty statements that reduce the margin for political maneuvering later on.

It seems that in the meantime, politicians on all sides are underestimating the threat of public disgust toward those who claim to lead them without a coherent policy on major national issues and without a public discussion of its priorities. If the current trend continues, it could undermine confidence in the political system to its core. This disgust is dangerous to both the leaders themselves and Israeli democracy.

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Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif said last week that by exiting the nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2018, the United States gave up its rights but not its obligations.

In an interview with Iranian journalist Mehdi Nasiri posted to the Arman Media YouTube channel on Dec. 9, Zarif said, "America is still obligated to lift its sanctions and to refrain from creating obstacles because it has remained a member of the United Nations since leaving the JCPOA."

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"Of course," he added, "it had the option to leave [the United Nations], like it left UNESCO [the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and other organizations. Allah willing, it will also leave planet Earth."

Because of this, he continued, US President-elect Joe Biden's administration would be "obligated" to rejoin the JCPOA "unless it chooses to break the law and mounts an insurgency."

He explained that Western powers had tried to include Iran's missile program and its regional activity in the JCPOA but had failed. Hence, he said, they did not have the option to demand the inclusion of these issues now.

Moreover, he said, the United States had sold billions of dollars' worth of arms to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and other Arab countries.

"Last year, they sold $67 billion worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia. They sold over $22 billion worth of weapons to the UAE. They are now selling F-35s [fighter jets] to the UAE. Nothing stops them when it comes to selling weapons to these countries. Are they willing to decrease their sale of weapons to the region? Of course not," he said.

Zarif then asserted the Americans "owe the Iranian people. We must not feel inferior," he said.

As for Iran's policy and strategy for confronting Israel, Zarif said, "I state this unequivocally: Personally, I cannot think of any circumstances under which we would officially recognize Israel. I'm not saying it's impossible, but I cannot imagine under what circumstances we would do this."

On Israel, said Zarif, "the honorable leader [Ali Khamenei] has expressed the solution. We're not talking about throwing the k***s into the sea, or a military attack, or suicide operations."

Rather he said Iran has suggested to the United Nations that a popular referendum, including Palestinians in the territories and the diaspora, would resolve the matter.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org

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Jordan's King Abdullah on Sunday met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and both leaders set high hopes that US President-elect Joe Biden would revive peace talks over a two-state solution to the decades-old Arab-Israeli conflict, officials said.

In a palace statement following his meeting with Abbas in the Red Sea port of Aqaba, the monarch said he fully backed Palestinian statehood.

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"His Majesty stressed Jordan stood with all its resources alongside Palestinians in achieving their legitimate rights to set up an independent state," Abdullah was quoted as saying in the statement.

In his first conversation with an Arab leader since his election earlier this month, Biden spoke with King Abdullah last week, telling the monarch that he hopes to cooperate on "supporting a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

In recent months, Abdullah has said Israeli policies and US President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan would lead to conflict.

The Trump administration has reversed decades of US policy on the conflict, refraining from endorsing the two-state solution, the longtime international formula which envisages a Palestinian state co-existing with Israel.

Diplomats say the monarch, a staunch US ally who was among the first Arab leaders to congratulate Biden, saw Trump's backing of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as sidelining the kingdom's once pivotal role in Arab-Israeli peacemaking.

Trump's peace plan was also seen as posing an existentialist threat to Jordan with the demise of a Palestinian state through the annexation of large parts of the West Bank pushing the kingdom to become an alternative state for Palestinians.

Jordan, which lost the West Bank including east Jerusalem to Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War, lies at the heart of the conflict with many of its more than 7 million citizens of Palestinian origin.

In another joint communique with Abbas, both leaders asserted that Israel "attempts to impose new realities" by annexing and accelerating settlement building in "occupied" Palestinian territory.

Abbas, who three years ago cut off contact with the Trump administration, accusing it of pro-Israel bias, on Monday was set to head to Cairo to seek its support for a revival of peace talks based on a two-state solution, diplomats said.

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The Trump administration plans to tighten sanctions on Tehran during its final months in power, the top US envoy on Iran said on Wednesday, as he urged President-elect Joe Biden to use the leverage to press for a deal that reduces the regional and nuclear threats posed by the Islamic Republic.

US Special Envoy for Iran Elliott Abrams, praising Biden's national security adviser and nominee for secretary of state as "terrific people," cautioned against repeating what he saw as former US President Barack Obama's mistakes in negotiating the 2015 nuclear deal. President Donald Trump left that deal unilaterally two years ago.

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Biden, set to take office on Jan. 20, has said he will return the United States to the Obama-era deal if Iran resumes compliance.

Abrams, at a virtual Beirut Institute event, said the Trump administration plans further pressure on Tehran, with sanctions related to arms, weapons of mass destruction, and human rights.

"We will have next week, and the week after, and the week after – all through December and January, there will be sanctions that deal with arms, that deal with weapons of mass destruction, that deal with human rights. ... So this will continue on for another couple of months, right until the end," Abrams said.

Abrams said he expects a negotiation to take place with Iran next year and that he believes a deal will be struck under the Biden administration.

"We think the Biden administration has a great opportunity because there is so much leverage on Iran through the sanctions," Abrams said, adding he sees an opportunity to work with France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, as well as allies in the region, to strike a deal that addresses both missile and regional threats from Iran.

"If we discard the leverage we have, it would really be tragic and foolish. But if we use it, there is a chance I think for [a] constructive agreement that addresses all of these problems," he said.

He said it would be wrong to assume the new administration could reverse Iran policy like switching on a light and said negotiations would take many months.

Iran's clerical rulers have ruled out negotiations over its missile program or changing its regional policy. Instead, it wants a change in US policy, including the lifting of sanctions.

Tensions between Washington and Tehran have risen since Trump abandoned Obama's 2015 Iran nuclear deal, and restored harsh economic sanctions to pressure Tehran to negotiate deeper curbs on its nuclear program, ballistic missile development, and support for regional proxy forces.

Abrams on Wednesday announced Iran-related sanctions on four entities in China and Russia, accusing them of activities promoting Iran's missile program.

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