Normalization with the UAE is a win for the Netanyahu Doctrine – analysis

If you were to zoom in a bit more on where Netanyahu’s priorities lie in protecting “life itself,” the answer would be: Iran, Iran and more Iran.

By LAHAV HARKOV
PRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu – is annexation more a political interest than a legacy issue? (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
PRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu – is annexation more a political interest than a legacy issue?
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
If a Netanyahu Doctrine could be summarized in two words, it would be: Security first. Or as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once said, protecting “life itself” comes before other matters.
But if you were to zoom in a bit more on where Netanyahu’s priorities lie in protecting “life itself,” the answer would be: Iran, Iran and more Iran.
And that doctrine proved itself yet again on Thursday, in the historic announcement of Israel’s third-ever peace agreement with an Arab country, the United Arab Emirates.
Netanyahu constantly and repeatedly points out that Iran is the major threat standing behind the other threats to Israel, whether in Lebanon, in Syria, or in Gaza.
Which made it so surprising that he did not mention the Islamic Republic even once in his victory speech after normalization with the UAE was announced - though it did come up when he answered questions.
Perhaps Netanyahu didn’t want to put a damper on the celebrations.
But Iran played a key role in bringing Israel and the UAE, as well as other Gulf States, closer.
After the Obama administration pushed for a nuclear deal with Iran with world powers, which they signed in 2015, Israel began sharing intelligence with several Gulf States, which also feel threatened by the mullahs’ regime.
Those ties continued to grow, from an Israeli delegation to the UN’s International Renewable Energy Agency opening in Abu Dhabi in 2015, to Netanyahu visiting Oman in 2018, and other connections that, as Netanyahu said announcing the ties with the UAE, must be kept quiet.
These Gulf States started with working with Israel on matters of national security, and after trust grew, they realized they have more interests in common with Israel, and began working together in other areas - like health - as well.
Which goes to show that the Netanyahu Doctrine is not just doomsday forecasting.
As the prime minister said, peace can come from other countries respecting Israel’s strength and determination to stand up for itself and against those who would seek its destruction.
There is, however, another part of the Netanyahu Doctrine that he is not so outspoken about, which is that, when it comes to the Palestinians, he tends to prefer the status quo. He’s historically been skeptical about sweeping changes, whether they’re peace plans or sovereignty moves.
Netanyahu said he is the one who wanted the Trump peace plan to include Israel applying sovereignty to settlements in Judea and Samaria - but also emphasized that he would only do it with American support.
The Trump administration has made it clear that it thinks peace with more Arab countries would do more for Israel’s security than extending its law in the West Bank, and Netanyahu agreed to hit the pause button on the Trump peace plan - though not forever, he says.
But this may not have been much of a loss for Netanyahu, who, despite his public statements, did not lay the groundwork for sovereignty moves, not technically, since no final map was drawn up, and not politically, in a unity government with Blue and White who are skeptical about the matter, to say the least.
Yes, Netanyahu’s political opponents to his Right and settler leaders sent out angry statements in the immediate aftermath of the normalization announcement.
But a historic peace treaty with an Arab country, the third ever and the first in 26 years, could be just the out he needed to not extend sovereignty without it being a major political loss.
Netanyahu can genuinely claim a victory here that he made peace, and unlike former prime ministers Menachem Begin or Yitzhak Rabin, who he mentioned in his speech, he did not have to make any real concessions, only a temporary pause on something Israel doesn’t even currently have.
And if the current political crisis leads us into another election, he can campaign on being in the big league of prime ministers who made history.
It’s a win for the Netanyahu Doctrine.