Netanyahu: Israel to have normal ties and peace deals with Arab countries
Moderate Arab states have publicly insisted that they will only make peace with Israel once a deal has been reached.
By TOVAH LAZAROFFNETANYAHU NEVER wanted a broad government, even when establishing one would not have involved his personal fate, let alone these days, when it would have diluted his persona power and prevented his trial’s delay.(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Israel will soon have normal ties and formal peace deals with a number of Arab countries, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised when he spoke at a Likud event in Tel Aviv Sunday night.He touted his past diplomatic achievements and promised even more successes.“I intend in the coming years to conclude normalization and peace agreements with a number of Arab countries,” Netanyahu said. He specifically recalled his 2018 trip to Oman, a country with which Israel has no formal diplomatic relations.Israel’s informal ties with a number of moderate Arab states have warmed since US President Donald Trump came into office in January 2017, as the US has pushed for normalized relations between Israel and the Arab world. To date, Israel has formal peace treaties only with Egypt and Jordan.Moderate Arab states have publicly insisted they will only make peace with Israel once a deal has been reached. But a number of them have allowed ties with Israel to improve, with Foreign Minister Israel Katz and Sports and Culture Minister Miri Regev visiting Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.In 2020, Israel will have a pavilion at the World Fair in Dubai for six months. An Israeli governmental delegation will be in Dubai for those six months, effectively giving the country de facto representation in the UAE.During his speech on Sunday night, Netanyahu said, simultaneous to achieving peace deals with Arab countries, he would annex West Bank settlements with US support. Further, he pledged to achieve a historic military pact with the US that would preserve the IDF’s freedom of action in defense of the country.Netanyahu said Israel was working on a daily basis to prevent Iran from entrenching itself militarily in Syria.
