Oct 1, 2017

Addressing the UN General Assembly for the first time, US President Donald Trump did not mention the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Not one word on the issue in his extensive Sept. 19 speech about all the world’s problems, menaces and opportunities.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted to the speech as if he had just heard the best musical concert of his life. Indeed, Trump’s words on revising the Iran deal, fighting Islamic terror and destroying North Korea were music to his ears — especially the silence on the Palestinian issue. In his own UN address, Netanyahu characterized the speech as the most pro-Israel one he had ever heard throughout his political career.

Netanyahu rejoiced over this speech, a far cry from former President Barack Obama’s diplomatic approach to conflict resolution and his striving for collective diplomacy, including within the United Nations. Trump's speech included no call for a two-state solution and no criticism of the settlements, unlike Obama's speeches. For a moment, while addressing the world from the UN podium and meeting with Israeli reporters, Netanyahu could forget the perils he left behind in Jerusalem, namely the two police investigations of which he is a suspect.

A senior Israeli diplomat who was part of Netanyahu’s New York delegation told Al-Monitor that Netanyahu was double-satisfied by his visit to New York. Not only did Netanyahu feel vindicated in the case he made to Trump about the Iranian regional threat and the irrelevance of the Palestinian issue, he also senses that he now has a free pass to pursue the diplomatic policies that will keep his right-wing government intact.

According to this Israeli official, one can foresee a continuation of settlement expansion, in a somewhat restrained way, and setting strict conditions for negotiations with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Netanyahu will probably demand that negotiations be bilateral and without Palestinian preconditions. He will insist right at the beginning of any such negotiations on Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and on Israeli overriding security responsibility over all the West Bank, even after permanent status. It was obvious to the official that his ministry need not prepare for a peace conference or so-called peace negotiations in the foreseeable future.