“The middle East is in chaos, Europe is falling apart, the political situation in the USA leaves much to be desired. The only stable place on the planet – the state of Israel,” – so wrote to me last week, one of the most experienced and renowned members of the state Department in Washington, a well-known expert on the Middle East.
Perhaps his statement in regard to our situation is somewhat exaggerated, but it is not so far from the truth. Stability, of course, the term is quite relative. However, the American observer came to a similar conclusion, sees the following picture: despite all the problems of a coalition government in Jerusalem, despite all the lamentations of the parliamentary opposition, Israel successfully overcomes the challenges in his way. To take at least the heyday of foreign policy.
The most recent example: the resumption of diplomatic relations with Guinea, the African Muslim state. “Israel isolated,” – to frighten us with “friends” in Europe. However, the reality is quite different. The agreement on normalization of relations with Turkey, an important visit of the head of government on African countries, rapprochement with Egypt, promoting pragmatic relations with Russia. Israel does not occupy any position in the Syrian conflict, but understands the role it plays in Russia, and is making efforts to reduce potential threats on the Northern border. Good relations with Moscow are playing not the last role.
Strengthening relations with India, China, Japan, and other Central Asian countries is a major foreign policy achievement of Israeli diplomacy. In addition, Israel is developing relations with States with which it has no formal diplomatic relations in such spheres as the fight against terror, modern technology, science, Economics. An important aspect of the foreign policy doctrine of the present government is a correlation between the interests of Israel and the events happening in the world around us. For example, the Iranian threat and the threat from the Islamic state unites Israel with a number of Arab States. Unlike past years when the different processes in the middle East occurred as a result of the intervention of the United States, now we are talking about the coordination of interests between regional players.
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is no longer the main theme that occupies the leaders of the Arab Sunni States. But they can’t completely ignore this problem. Therefore, you should not expect, that soon will be entered into official diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia. However, Israel may use informal relations with these countries to promote the solution of the Palestinian problem.
As for Europe, I hope that the aggravation of internal problems of this continent, at least to some extent, make it more reasonable, the insistence of the EU to promote devoid of meaning and use initiative, similar to that put forward by the French government. Unfortunately, Europe does not understand the real problems of the Middle East that threaten not only the region, but also to her. The United States, despite all the differences, were and remain the main partner of Israel. And this in the long term there is no alternative.
