May 2023 Policy Brief No. 2 - THE SLOWING DOWN OF ISRAEL-ARAB RELATIONS UNDER THE NETANYAHU GOVERNMENT

Minilateral initiatives moved forward, excluding the Dynamics between Israel and the Arab world have taken a turn for Negev Forum summit, and preventive diplomacy the worse in the first few months of the current Israeli government. [...] But conditions for positive change do 1 exist and include marginalizing Israeli extremists, avoiding a In his public statements, Netanyahu has emphasized that — flare-up with the Palestinians, reducing the domestic turmoil contrary to the sequence laid out by the Arab Peace Initiative in Israel, and ensuring the effective involvement of both the (API) of 2002 — he does not see progress with the Pa. [...] The official reasoning was that all Knesset strengthen bilateral relations, especially in the development members were invited, but in practice the meetings gave fields, and to push forward the path of partnership and Smotrich and Ben-Gvir a legitimacy that others in the region peace between the two countries”; Turkey’s Erdoğan wrote and in the West were not willing to grant them. [...] And, more the UAE signed — a week after the Israeli elections — a significantly, the planned ministerial summit of the Negev memorandum of understanding to advance their trilateral Forum, which was scheduled to take place in Morocco in electricity-water swap deal; and Israel, Egypt, and the EU March, was eventually postponed due to fears of a security met in February 2023 in Cairo to review progre. [...] tourism conference in al-Ula; opening of Omani airspace to Israeli carriers (as the Saudis and, to highlight its seriousness about the need to achieve already did), the Qatari decision to extend World Cup visas a two-state solution, it engaged with the EU and the Arab through 2023, including for Israelis, and the participation League on a possible international package of incentives for of an Isra.