Gregg Roman, director of the Middle East Forum, briefed the Middle East Forum in a conference call on April 3, 2018.
A conflagration along Israel’s northern border, for example, will largely reduce domestic political considerations given the public’s need for a seasoned center-right leadership with a proven record on security and strategic affairs. Likewise, Netanyahu’s position vis-à-vis the Palestinian Authority has been substantially strengthened by Mahmoud Abbas’s frontal confrontation with the Trump administration, on the one hand, and the evolving strategic alliance between Israel and the Sunni Arab states vis-à-vis the Iranian threat, on the other. This alliance has received a major boost by President Trump’s regional strategy, which, in sharp contrast to that of his predecessor’s appeasement of implacable U.S. enemies at the expense of longstanding allies, seeks to create a common denominator among America’s regional allies that will allow them to contain Tehran’s hegemonic drive and broker Palestinian-Israeli peace.
Netanyahu’s deft handling of Israel’s regional and global affairs, notably the intensification of bilateral relations with India and China and the establishment of a strategic dialogue with Moscow over the hazardously complex Syrian situation, may provide a counterweight to his investigatory woes in any future elections. Whether this will allow him to survive an attorney general’s indictment is far less certain.
Summary accounts by Marilyn Stern, Communications Coordinator for the Middle East Forum