Prime Minister Netanyahu’s trip to the US

I am ashamed by the shallowness and kindergarten behavior of “over 3,500 academics, writers and artists that urged Biden and the UN chief to snub Netanyahu” during his coming visit to the US, as reported by the Times of Israel.

Join me in condemning their behavior: They are hurting Israel and the Jewish people in the Diaspora.

For details, see the article I published in “Times of Israel”:

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/expanding-the-abraham-accords-in-the-us-senate/

As the Israelis are receiving this evening the Jewish New Year, I urge them to think about the irreparable harm they are doing to themselves with this behavior.

Jaime Kardontchik, PhD (Physics)

Silicon Valley, California

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The above is a letter I am lately sending to many professors at Israeli universities.

Prime Minister Netanyahu is not traveling to the US to enjoy a vacation. He will spend a week in the US to attend to essentially three subjects that are of vital interest to all Israelis, irrespective of their political views or beliefs: leftists, rightists, secular or religious.

Netanyahu will be in the Silicon Valley, California, to secure new investments in the Israeli high-tech industry.

These investments have been lately damaged by the irresponsible and self-inflicting actions of some Israelis calling for – and actually implementing – the withdrawal of foreign investments and assets from Israel, in a bid to overturn the results of the last November elections in Israel and overthrow the present Israeli government.

Prime Minister Netanyahu will then travel to the East Coast, to meet in New York with US officials, including president Biden, to advance Israel’s interests in the present negotiations between the US and Saudi Arabia.

The US has clear goals to promote its interests in the Middle East: The US wants to stop the encroachment of China in this region, as well as to reassert the presence of the US by defending the political and economic stability of the Gulf countries against an aggressive Iran. There are in the US strong currents against President Biden, coming from its own Democratic party base, against any rapprochement with Saudi Arabia, due to its historical poor human rights record, and from environmentalists, who see any intent to defend Saudi Arabia and its fossil-fuel-based infrastructure economy as fundamentally opposed to their vision of a green economy. President Biden will need the votes of the Republican party in Congress to succeed, and it is here where promoting some kind of diplomatic and economic normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel enters into the picture.

How good this diplomatic and economic normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia will actually be, and whether this would include a formal peace treaty, depends on how assertive can Israel be in this diplomatic game.

An Israeli Prime Minister snubbed by the US administration during his current visit to the US – as the idiotic proposal of those “3,500 academic, writers and artists” portents – is a receipt for sure failure. Is this what the Israelis want? Miss a unique opportunity to achieve reconciliation and peace with the most significant Muslim country in the Middle East, just for the sake to gain points in an internal political struggle in Israel?

And then, there is Iran. The Biden administration is not interested and will do anything to avoid now a confrontation with Iran: there are general elections in the US in 2024, and the least that the Democratic party needs now is a military confrontation with Iran just before the elections. Israel should avoid becoming a partisan item in the fight between Democrats and Republicans for the control of Congress and the Executive branch (the Presidency).

This practically leaves only the UN arena to fight against the genocidal intentions of Iran against Israel. Israel needs to mobilize the support of the European, Latin America, Africa, and Asian countries. In this arena, the US will be more than willing to support Israel.

And here comes the suicidal petition to the UN of the “3,500 academic, writers and artists” to snub the Prime Minister of Israel. Are they out of their mind? Are they so blinded by their hatred to Netanyahu, that they are willing to sacrifice their own country in the altar of this hatred?