What drama. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump and going so far as to draw historical comparisons between Trump's declaration and decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem to the Edict of Cyrus, the Balfour Declaration, and former President Harry Truman's immediate recognition of Israel after we declared independence – Israel is learning about another state's witness, this time Nir Hefetz, who might possibly supply the police with the golden piece of evidence it's looking for. It's very doubtful that will happen. Hefetz could open up a Pandora's box that isn't necessarily related to the prime minister.
From the oozing Israeli swamp, back to Washington. At the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference, which has changed from a pro-Israel Jewish lobby to a general conference of American Jews, Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales gave a speech and announced to loud applause that he, too, would be moving his country's embassy to Jerusalem. (I was surprised at the scattered applause for the speaker who preceded him, Labor party chairman Avi Gabbay.)
Israeli diplomacy is securing unprecedented achievements, only to tumble from new heights to the murky depths of police investigations and the Israeli media's Jobian predictions.
This duality is insufferable. There are two separate universes, and the citizens of Israel are shaken by a massive attack on their consciousness.
Not only is the U.S. embassy moving to Jerusalem despite the hostile predictions, the Palestinian issue is dragging in the dirt. There is talk about the possibility of dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians. The Barack Obama era has vanished as if it never existed. Trump has proven that he knows how to buck the paradigms of the old establishment.
Will he cross the Rubicon and set up a new paradigm for the conflict over this land, as well?
The U.S. State Department has mostly given preference to Arab matters over Israel. Nearly 100 years of negotiations since the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement of 1919 up through today have made it crystal clear that the Arabs of Israel have no interest in sharing the land with the Jews or in an independent state.
They have always acted to keep the Jews from returning to Zion. So what will another peace plan help? It might be intended for the sake of Trump himself, so he can see the farce for himself. He has already said that there will be no peace unless the Palestinians take a seat at the negotiating table. Fine.
They sat for long enough while the streets of Israel were rife with terrorist attacks. Now they have traded the bloody attacks for diplomatic ones. So another delegation will arrive here to put a square peg in a round hole. Amateurs.
At the AIPAC conference, everyone I spoke to – officials from the Diaspora and from Israel – voiced one common concern – could we stop the great wave of U.S. Jews quietly disappearing from the Jewish people? The question of the young generation's identity hangs over the meeting.
Israel, as the national home of the Jewish people, will need to be at the forefront of this battle. More than 2,000 years ago, Hillel the Elder asked his famous question – "If I am not for myself, who is for me?" and followed it with "If not now, when?"
