Palestine bursts Bibi's belief he has Arab allies

An article from 2013 about Netanyahu’s then-hopes of Gulf state allies follows the lead article.

The six countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the UAE, Oman. Netanyahu has been claiming he is building an alliance with them against Iran. Claiming to be crossing a bridge which isn’t there.

Israel’s Relations With the Arab Gulf States Won’t Warm Until the Occupation Ends

By Philip Sweigart, FMEP
August 11, 2015

Settling disputes between allies is key to presenting a united front against adversaries. That’s why it has long been in the interests of the US to bring about a thaw in relations between Israel and America’s Arab allies.

But last week, an Obama administration official told Israeli reporters that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s dream of improving relations with the Arab Gulf States without making progress toward peace with the Palestinians is unrealistic. Coming as the GCC endorses the Iran nuclear agreement over Netanyahu’s stringent objections, the comments pour cold water on a view some government officials and analysts in Israel have held for years: that Israel could expand cooperation with moderate, pro-Western regimes in the Arab world on common goals – especially containing Iran – without addressing the Palestinian issue.

Inspired by peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, some Israelis have harboured hopes of attaining rapprochement with the Gulf States without first compromising to create a Palestinian state. To be sure, Israel and Saudi Arabia have a long history of covert cooperation, especially in the counterterrorism arena. But faced with the specter of Iranian aggression and expansionism, the argument went, Israel and the Gulf States could stand together publicly to counter Iran’s designs for the region. Some Israeli politicians even saw the Gulf States as potential partners in pressuring the Palestinians to accept a peace deal more favourable to Israel. Saudi Arabia in particular, a major financial backer of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), has a record of putting pressure on Palestinian leaders to de-escalate conflicts with Israel, [1] which tend to stir up public anger and political activism in the rest of the Arab world.

Optimistic, if high-handed days: Chaim Weizmann (left, wearing Arab headdress as a sign of friendship) and Emir Faisl, ruler of Iraq bewlieved they could could negotiate on behalf of all Jews and Arabs. The Faisal–Weizmann Agreement was signed on 3 January 1919, by Emir Faisal (son of the King of Hejaz), who was for a short time King of the Arab Kingdom of Syria or Greater Syria in 1920, and was King of the Kingdom of Iraq from August 1921 to 1933, and Chaim Weizmann (later President of the World Zionist Organization) as part of the Paris Peace Conference, 1919 settling disputes stemming from World War I. It was a short-lived agreement for Arab–Jewish cooperation on the development of a Jewish homeland in Palestine and an Arab nation in a large part of the Middle East.

Arab regimes may be pragmatic in their approach to Israel, but they face plenty of internal constraints that limit their engagement. Domestic hardliners try to cast the Jewish state as an agent of Western imperialism, and the idea that the Muslim world – first and foremost Palestine – is the victim of a “Zionist-Crusader” conspiracy is a common theme in terrorist recruitment efforts. Such characterizations of Israel echo age-old antisemitic canards that have been levelled against the world’s Jews for centuries. And to be sure, many of Israel’s detractors will exploit the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to achieve their own ends, regardless of what Israel does.

The hardliners don’t represent everyone, though. Large majorities in key Gulf States like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the UAE support a peaceful, two-state resolution to the conflict, despite the rejectionists’ rhetoric. But the status quo of occupation and violence undermines that pro-peace majority. Until Israel ends the occupation and allows for the establishment of a Palestinian state, voices for peace and co-existence will continue to be drowned out by those who would delegitimize Israel. And however unfair some criticisms might be, the Netanyahu government doesn’t help when it builds settlements in the West Bank and fires indiscriminately on Palestinians in Gaza.

Of course, any efforts by Israel must be reciprocated. Gulf rulers will have to take their own risks, confronting antisemitism in their societies and countering extremist narratives that seek to delegitimize Israel. This should be a demand of the U.S. as it addresses the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The prospects for explicit and high-level co-operation between Israel and the Gulf monarchies without an end to the occupation were always remote. But now, the GCC’s endorsement of the Iran deal should lay to rest any illusions that a common enemy, Iran, will drive them into Israel’s arms. Unlike Netanyahu, the GCC seems to have decided that it can live with a deal that eliminates Iran’s nuclear weapons-producing capabilities for the long term, despite any risks that it may boost Iran’s regional influence. As in the past, countering Iran may continue to be a venue for behind-the-scenes co-operation, but the Gulf States will not join in Israel’s public rift with the Obama administration.

Rather than avoiding the Palestinian issue, Israel has an opportunity to engage with the Arab world on the Arab Peace Initiative (API). Authored by the Saudis, passed by the Arab League and renewed every year, the API offers Israel full normalization of relations after a Palestinian state is established in the areas of the West Bank and Gaza that Israel conquered in the 1967 war. Thanks to Secretary of State Kerry’s work in 2013, the offer even allows for negotiated, mutually agreed-upon land swaps that would allow Israel to keep some of its settlements in the West Bank.

While it is no guarantee of success, the establishment of a Palestinian state, living peacefully alongside Israel, remains the best path to normalizing relations between Israel and the Arab world. Whether the Obama administration chooses to re-engage on this issue after the battle for the Iran deal in Congress is settled remains to be seen.

[1] See for example Hartley, Cathy and Paul Cossali. Survey of Arab-Israeli Relations. Routledge, 2004, p. 88.

Philip Sweigart is a Policy and Media Analyst at the Foundation for Middle East Peace.

Israel, Gulf states said discussing new alliance to stop Iran

Israeli TV: Intensive talks with leading figures taking place over recent weeks, amid concern that Tehran will dupe Washington

By Aaron Kalman, Times of Israel
October 2, 2013

Israel has held a series of meetings with prominent figures from a number of Gulf and other Arab states in recent weeks in an attempt to muster a new alliance capable of blocking Iran’s drive toward nuclear weapons, Israel’s Channel 2 reported Wednesday.

According to the report, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been supervising a series of “intensive meetings” with representatives of these other countries. One “high ranking official” even came on a secret visit to Israel, the report said.

The report came a day after Netanyahu, in an overlooked passage of his UN speech, noted that shared concerns over Iran’s nuclear programme “have led many of our Arab neighbours to recognize… that Israel is not their enemy” and created an opportunity to “build new relationships.”

The Arab and Gulf states involved in the new talks have no diplomatic ties with Jerusalem, the report noted. What they share with Israel, it said, is the concern that President Hasan Rouhani’s new diplomatic outreach will fool the US and lead to a US-Iran diplomatic agreement which provides for “less than the dismantling of the Iranian nuclear program.”

“There is a deep sense of anxiety concerning what’s happening in Iran,” Israeli Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor told Channel 2 Wednesday. While he avoided comment on any direct contact between Israel and the Gulf states, he said there were messages “from all over the region” being transmitted to the highest ranks of the US government.

Likud MK Tzachi Hanegbi, who is close to Netanyahu, indicated to the Times of Israel after the prime minister’s speech to the General Assembly on Tuesday that Israel was no longer certain that the Obama administration would use force against Iran even in a last resort to stop[ it attaining nuclear weapons.

In the past, Israel maintained an interest office in Doha, Qatar, but it was closed in 2009. It is widely believed that Jerusalem still maintains some sort of engagement with various states in the Persian Gulf region, with whom it has many joined interests. The government is extremely careful not to publicly acknowledge such ties — in order not to jeopardize them.

On Tuesday Netanyahu made it clear that “Israel will not allow Iran to get nuclear weapons” and could take military action to stop it from doing so. “If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone. Yet, in standing alone, Israel will know that we will be defending many, many others,” he stated.

He immediately added: “The dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran and the emergence of other threats in our region have led many of our Arab neighbors to recognize, finally recognize, that Israel is not their enemy. And this affords us the opportunity to overcome the historic animosities and build new relationships, new friendships, new hopes.”

He went on: “Israel welcomes engagement with the wider Arab world. We hope that our common interests and common challenges will help us forge a more peaceful future.”

A number of Sunni countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, have been vocally opposed to Iran’s nuclear programme, placing them and Israel on the same side of the debate.

A carelessly edited version of the 2013 Israeli state budget revealed that Israel opened a diplomatic office somewhere in the Persian Gulf between 2010 and 2012. Foreign Ministry sources asked the Finance Ministry to remove the sensitive clause from the budget — and from the public’s eye.

Raphael Ahren contributed to this article