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In just four weeks in office, Yair Lapid, the architect of Israel’s new coalition government, has spent much of his time abroad, signaling his determination to give a new tone to foreign relations after the divisive reign. of 12 years of Benjamin Netanyahu.
Since the eight-party coalition was voted on last month, Foreign Minister Lapid, who opened the first Israeli embassy in the United Arab Emirates, has been in Rome for consultations with the Secretary of State United, Antony Blinken, and traveled to Amman to talk to his Jordanian counterpart. and addressed EU Foreign Ministers in Brussels.
“Too much time has passed: there is a new government, a new energy, we are going to a new beginning,” Lapid said in Brussels on Monday, the first Israeli official to formally address the European Council on Foreign Affairs. in more than a decade.
“Israel shares interests with the EU, but more than that, it shares values with the EU,” he added, citing human and LGBT rights, the climate crisis, terrorism and democratic stones such as a free press, a strong civil society and freedom of religion.
Lapid, a former centrist television journalist, was the key figure in bringing together the disparate coalition, united solely by the desire to oust Netanyahu. The fact that the EU extended the invitation to Lapid and responded positively and made the trip was not lost on European officials, long frustrated by Netanyahu’s policies on settlements in the West Bank, Iran and European internal policy.
The May conflict in Gaza also led to the condemnation of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. It is unclear what will change substantially. But Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said on Monday: “We have the opportunity to start again and strengthen our bilateral relations.”
A European diplomat added: “Netanyahu’s absence is an immense opportunity [on a wide variety of issues], and after many years the Israeli Foreign Ministry headed by Lapid has once again become a center of power.
The Israeli government, touted as a “coalition of change,” has also sought to repair ties with the U.S. Democratic Party in Washington, minimizing public differences over Iran’s nuclear issue and highlighting its willingness to make progress in the conflict. Palestinian.
Top Israeli officials have met with representatives of all the country’s Middle East allies, a signal to the Israeli public that there is life after Netanyahu, who signed peace agreements with several of them and, in election campaigns, was presented as a “separate league” on the world stage.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett secretly met with Jordanian King Abdullah in Amman last week, Axios reported for the first time, after years of disconnection between the monarch and Netanyahu.
Netanyahu was infamous for monopolizing all foreign policy decisions and using the populist governments of Central and Eastern Europe to divide the EU and prevent any criticism of Israel.
Yair Netanyahu, the former minister’s son and political adviser, had called the EU an “enemy of Israel” and a “bad globalist organization”, wishing right-wing figures such as Nigel Farage, Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Dutchman Geert Wilders.
The Israeli government is clear that it does not want to abandon ties with nationalist governments; Bennett has recently spoken with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Rather, according to a senior Israeli government official, the focus is on “expanding our alliances and working with a wider set of countries.”
Israeli analysts point to Netanyahu’s indifference to the US Democratic Party’s reaction to his strong hug to Donald Trump and public disputes with Barack Obama, as an example of such a choice of convenient allies above of Israel’s long-term interests.
“He believed that as long as he remained in power he could control any fall and would not demand a price either for himself or for Israel,” said Tal Shalev, a political correspondent for Walla News.
Israel under Bennett remains opposed to the U.S. return to Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal, but the prime minister has promised that differences with Washington will be handled discreetly behind closed doors.
However, international officials are clear that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will continue to be an impediment to improving foreign ties with some countries.
“A credible commitment, a stronger relationship with Israel needs to revive a path to peace and justice for Israelis and Palestinians… Equally,” Borrell said, while nodding to the “special composition” of the new Israeli government.
The Israeli coalition spans the entire ideological range, including pro-colonial figures like Bennett, an ultranationalist who in the past defended the annexation of the West Bank, centrists like Lapid, left-wing groups and an Arab party. Lapid, who will take over from Bennett as prime minister as part of the coalition deal, declared in Brussels his support for a two-state solution, although he admitted that progress was unlikely to happen. short term.
“No one [in this government] is making great strides on the Palestinian issue, such as [West Bank] annexation, new settlements or, in that sense, peace talks on final status, “the senior Israeli official said.” But there is room for progress and a more positive environment. “
Western officials have been encouraged by the new government’s willingness to take practical steps to improve economic conditions and stability in the West Bank and Gaza.
In recent weeks, Israel has offered one million vaccines against Covid-19 to the Palestinian Authority (which the Palestinians later rejected), agreed to strengthen trade ties between Jordan and the West Bank, signed a water agreement with Jordan and resurrected joint ministerial economic projects. with the AP – all the steps that Netanyahu refused to take. The Joe Biden administration is expected to advocate for the strengthening of the Palestinian business sector in the West Bank and the reduction of frictions between Israeli and Palestinian security forces, several people reported on the plans.
It is unclear whether these efforts are enough to prevent another military escalation in Gaza or riots in the West Bank. And an important test for the new government will be its policies on evictions of Palestinian houses in East Jerusalem and the construction of settlements in the West Bank.
“It simply came to our notice then [regarding the Israeli government] but within a set of very realistic parameters “, added the European diplomat. “It is a diverse coalition with extreme differences. The question is what this coalition can bear. ”
Additional reports by Valentina Pop in Brussels
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