Will Morocco be the next Muslim state to host Netanyahu?
During his historic visit to Chad on Sunday, Netanyahu said that there would be additional visits to Muslim countries, though he would not say when or where.
By HERB KEINONUpdated: JANUARY 25, 2019 00:52A police officer stands near a Moroccan national flag(photo credit: REUTERS/AMR ABDALLAH DALSH)
After visiting Oman in October and Chad this week, the next Muslim country that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may visit is Morocco, according to reports in the Moroccan media.The French-language Le Desk reported that National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat is working behind the scenes, with the support of Washington, to arrange a meeting between Netanyahu and King Mohammed VI in Rabat before the April 9 Knesset elections.During his historic visit to Chad on Sunday, Netanyahu said that there would be additional visits to Muslim countries, though he would not say when or where.A spokesman in the Prime Minister’s Office said that Israel does not relate to reports about contacts with states with whom it does not have formal diplomatic relations. The spokesman stressed that this was not to be viewed as a confirmation of the reports.A visit now would not only come against the backdrop of Israel making inroads into Muslim and Arab countries, but also within the context of Morocco’s recent rupture of ties with Iran, and its efforts to gain US support in the decades-old conflict in Western Sahara.Last May, after accusing Iran and Hezbollah of training, arming and providing funds to the Polisario Front in Western Sahara, including providing them with surface-to-air missile systems, Morocco severed ties with Iran.If a visit by Netanyahu does transpire, it would not be the first visit by an Israeli premier to Morocco: Shimon Peres visited there in 1986, as did Ehud Barak in 1999.In addition, Mohammed sent his personal adviser, Andre Azoulay – who is also Jewish – to Israel in September 2016 to attend Peres’ funeral.In 1994, after the signing of the Oslo Accords’ Declaration of Principles, Israel and Morocco opened bilateral liaison offices, but these offices were closed following the outbreak of the Second Intifada in 2000.Former Foreign Ministry director-general Dore Gold, who during his tenure in 2015-2016 was active in trying to break diplomatic ground for Israel in West Africa, said that Morocco has traditionally been “extremely friendly to Israel,” even offering diplomatic services at critical times, such as hosting the secret talks in September 1977 between Moshe Dayan and Egypt’s Hassan Tuhami, which preceded Anwar Sadat’s landmark visit to Jerusalem two months later.
“It doesn’t matter that this was a long time ago,” Gold said. “In a place like Morocco, a precedent established by King Hassan carries through for generations.”While Gold stressed that he had no information about an impending Netanyahu visit, he said that “on the basis of past precedent and current trends, I think that Morocco is potentially an important partner for Israel.”Asked what the Moroccans stood to gain from hosting a visit at this time, Gold said: “First of all, they want a good relationship with the United States, and Netanyahu has established close ties with the Trump administration. I don’t know if there will be a visit, but if I look at all the factors surrounding Morocco, there is a tremendous potential for taking this relationship to the next level.”However, despite this, Morocco was a leading force behind the cancellation of an African-Israel summit that was scheduled to be held in Togo in late 2017, but was canceled at the last minute. Morocco also opposed Netanyahu’s participation that year in a western African summit in Liberia.“Many times, countries that are preponderant in a region want to feel like they are on the inside, consulted and brought in, and when they feel things have happened behind their back, they get disturbed,” Gold said. He added, “Sometimes, countries that are friendly to you simply don’t want you to play around in their backyard.”Regarding reports that Israel’s next diplomatic breakthrough may come with a visit to Israel by the president of Mali, another country in the Sahel with whom Israel does not have relations, Gold said that Mali is “absolutely” a potential candidate for renewed ties with Israel, and that this decision will be impacted by what France and Algeria have to say. While at first blush it would seem that Algeria, implacably hostile to Israel, would be opposed to the move, Gold said that this would be the case “unless they themselves also want to get into the game.”
