The Middle East Institute has a great round-up of their recent meetings in Jerusalem and Ramallah regarding the current state of peace efforts. As part of his analysis, David Makovsky puts forward a provocative notion of what future relations between the Israeli government and the new GOP-led Congress might look like: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may become the lobbyist for the Arabs.
As Makovsky sees it, there is likely to be a move to cut foreign aid because of an emphasis on cutting government spending. But Makovsky thinks that Netanyahu may become the advocate for keeping foreign aid spending to the Palestinians, to Egypt, and even to Israel as a tactical move. If Netanyahu gets the Congress not to cut spending to the Middle East, he wins some political capital with his negotiating partners.
Makovsky also provides an interesting view of what is happening on the ground in the West Bank and how that bottom-up reality is having an impact on the top down diplomacy. He concludes: “On-the-ground developments in the West Bank left the Institute delegation feeling optimistic about ongoing institution-building efforts and the future of security cooperation. The Palestinians and Israelis who have ushered in these developments clearly view them as state-building efforts and believe that they are making progress on multiple fronts. Accordingly, the bottom-up efforts would most not likely proceed independently if obstacles impeded the top-down peace negotiations.”