The Real Peace is with the Arab States

But in truth, the real action is behind the scenes, where Washington is attempting to maintain a sensitive balance between Israel and the Arab states while lobbying energetically to achieve normalization between the two parties. That’s the context in which to understand the cancellation of Israel’s annexation of the settlements, as well as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s visit to Uganda this week.

The White House is moving to improve Israeli-Arab relations on three fronts: nonaggression pacts, direct flights between Israel and Arab countries, and official participation of Israeli representatives at Arab summits and events, according to sources in the White House.

What happened last week at the White House was dramatic: An American president offered the Palestinians much less than his predecessors — a state in 70 percent of the West Bank, and a symbolic capital in East Jerusalem — and the reactions in most Arab capitals ranged between silence to outright approval. That tells you something about the positive relationship between the Trump administration and the Arab world, between the Arab world and Israel, and between Israel and the White House.

I spoke to David Makovsky, director of the Project on Arab-Israel Relations at the Washington Institute, to discuss the details of the plan, and whether it has any chance of success.