Is Netanyahu’s Policy Risking the Abraham Accords ? / Newslooks / Washington DC. With the Abraham Accords hanging in the balance, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud government has violated one of the basic tenants of the agreement. It has started building in the West Bank in clear violation of the Agreement – an agreement Netanyahu himself signed in 2020.
The Abraham Accords, brokered by the Trump Administration and members of President Trump’s own family, were the most significant diplomatic triumph In the Middle East since the Camp David Accords decades ago. The normalization of relations between several Arab-bloc countries and Israel was unthinkable just a few years earlier. Yet, these courageous countries entered into normal relations for the first time, ever. They agreed on several key points. One of these was that the West Bank would not have any new settlements.
After briefly being out of power after the Abraham Accords were signed, Netanyahu returned to the Prime Minister’s chair last year. Netanyahu stated just before his swearing-in, “The new government is determined to restore . . . quiet and personal security to the citizens of Israel.” Many took this a foreshadowing of a tremendous turn to the extreme right and the religious opinions that govern that wing in Israel.
Upon taking up the Premiership, Netanyahu appointed his new coalition partners to the places where they could do the most promote their religious chauvinism. Chiefly among these are Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, two leaders often described as ultranationalist hardliners.
Ben-Gvir will oversee police and security forces as security minister, while Smotrich’s Religious Zionism Party will have control over the expansion of Israeli settlements in West Bank. Together these two and others in the coalition have succeeded in leaving Netanyahu decidedly on the left of his own governing coalition. That is no mean trick.
Armed confrontation with the PLO and new settlements on the West Bank were all but assured with this move leaving the Abraham Accords in mortal danger. With the announcement of the building of over four thousand new settlements on the West Bank, the practical face of the Abraham Accords – the Negev Summit – was cancelled.
The Negev Summit was the working end of the Abraham Accords. The “Negev Summit” is a name for the meeting of the Abraham Accords countries in 2022. Under the auspices of that Summit Meeting, formal and informal meetings among the Abraham Accord nations like Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt and Morocco would continue until the next Summit planned for this Year. This Summit has been planned to be a biennial event for these countries and other invited leaders like the United States’ Secretary of State and the leader of the PLO.
A second summit to underpin these meetings and to continue the warming of relations was planned for this year until the announcement of the building plan on the West Bank. With that announcement, Morocco announced that it was withdrawing from the Summit.
Morocco is arguably the leader of the most diplomatic savvy and more moderate Muslim states. Almost immediately after the original countries signed the Abraham Accords, Morocco joined and was the first Arab-bloc state to openly sign a defense agreement with Israel. Morocco must be seen as embracing the Abraham Accords more so than almost any other state.
Yet, Morocco had no choice but to withdraw from the Negev Summit or risk seeming to endorse the building on the West Bank. This action is a clear warning to Netanyahu and his religious-dominated coalition that the Abraham Accords themselves are in danger.
Netanyahu is a long lasting and very capable politician. He is the longest serving Prime Minister of Israel and has twice regained the premiership after twice being ousted from office. However, his brilliance as a political leader might be overstated in the recent elections. Rather than carefully building a coalition of a capable, center-right government – a hallmark of his career – he just caved to the extreme elements so that he could hold the gavel again.
These extreme elements have no interest in the Abraham Accords and will not bend to them. Netanyahu will have to either resign himself to being ruled by these elements or he will have to step on them quickly. Otherwise, he will be seen a feckless and merely holding on to the office at any price that need be paid.
This is not a price that the other signers of the Abraham Accords are willing to pay.
The Israeli statesman that signed the Abraham Accords is not in evidence today. The success of those accords in the long run will depend on the immediate actions of the Israeli Prime Minister. Now in his seventies, I certainly hope that Benjamin Netanyahu is up to the challenge just one more time.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Newslooks.com
Is Netanyahu’s Policy Risking the Abraham Accords ?
Is Netanyahu’s Policy Risking the Abraham Accords ?
Is Netanyahu’s Policy Risking the Abraham Accords ?
