“The Palestinian issue originally achieved strategic importance for the US primarily as a result of the Cold War and the US-Soviet competition for allies in the strategic Middle East. With the end of the cold war there has been a sometimes-serious debate about just how important the issue is to the United States. For the most part its importance has been assumed. Everybody knows it is important – but is it really important to us? And what about Israel?
Read MoreAccording to one poll several years ago, 62% of Jewish Israelis thought that the aspiration of the Arabs, in the long run, was to conquer the state of Israel and of that number, 42% thought the goal was to destroy a significant part of the Jewish population in Israel. If that is your assumption about the people you are expected to negotiate with, then the price for any concessions would be much too high.
Read MorePresident Trump has revived the call to move our Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The original reasons for locating in Tel Aviv were practical and twofold: security after the 1948 Arab Israeli war, and the fact that the Israeli government was initially located in Tel Aviv. But then the Israelis moved their government to Jerusalem and, for the most part, security was established in the land. Our Embassy, however, stayed in Tel Aviv. Now the location of our Embassy is a red flag that could block our moves to discredit and defeat ISIS.
Read MoreAt their meeting tomorrow the match-up will be uneven. Bibi does his homework and will know precisely what has been going on in the White House and the Congress. He will be better informed than his interlocutors, including the President. His intelligence on the Middle East region as it impacts on Israel is better than ours, and his attention to detail makes him a formidable negotiator. Bibi has a lot in common with President Trump but has been at it a lot longer. If there is a clash, we will probably not see it. But if President Trump thinks he can bully Prime Minister Netanyahu, Trump better be prepared to lose.
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