Netanyahu’s diplomacy: buying friends by selling weapons

“This visit reflects the rising status of Israel among the nations,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced festively as he informed his Cabinet on Nov. 25 of the “historic visit” that Chad’s President Idriss Deby was about to begin in Israel. The following day, Netanyahu hosted Czech President Milos Zeman, who joked that — not being a dictator — he could not commit to moving his country’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as Israel hopes, but he will do his best.

This week we were also informed of a behind-the-scenes diplomatic romance between Netanyahu and Sudan’s ruler, Omar al-Bashir, for whom there is an outstanding international arrest warrant for crimes against humanity and war crimes. The publications about contacts between Jerusalem and Khartoum suggest that the time has come for this African dictator to acknowledge these ties. In other words, he is requested to pay Israel with diplomatic currency for the public relations campaign it has waged on Sudan’s behalf in Washington. And so, while Israel offers to Sudan (shady) diplomatic services, it also offers other (weapons) services to other regimes. It was no coincidence that Deby said in Jerusalem, “We have a shared struggle … against the sickening evil of this century, which is terrorism.”