This article appears in the Jerusalem Post of 19 July 2022
The Bennett-
Lapid government lasted just one year and a few days. It collapsed under weight
of domestic political challenges, and its record at home is patchy. In
the field of foreign policy, however, it can boast significant
achievements. There is no doubt that Israel’s diplomatic relations with
many of its neighbors were far better in June 2022 than in June 2021, and that
the geostrategic map of the Middle East had started to shift in a positive
direction.
Early on, the coalition
government focused on deepening the Abraham Accords and enhancing its anti-Iran policy.
Then-Prime Minister Bennett indicated a strengthening of approach toward Iran
in July 2021, just before a visit to Washington. This re-invigorated
policy, according to media reports, became known within the security services
as the “Octopus doctrine”. Comparing Iran’s leadership to the head of an
octopus, its tentacles are the various Iranian proxy groups spread across the
Middle East. The coalition approved a change in tactics from striking only
at the tentacles to going straight for the head. An Israeli security official
is reported to have told the London Daily Telegraph: “[Ex-] prime minister
Bennett’s Octopus doctrine has proven to be effective. It has caused shockwaves
throughout the leadership of Iran.”
Although never
acknowledged publicly, there is a widespread belief that the coalition
authorized a program of covert action aimed at disrupting or delaying Iran’s progress
toward acquiring a nuclear arsenal, including cyber attacks, explosions at key
installations and the assassination of top Iranian nuclear scientists.
The coalition government
certainly authorized Israel’s security forces to neutralize Iranian attempts to
hit Western targets abroad. In April 2022, Mossad operatives in Iran were
reported to have captured and interrogated Mansour Rasouli, who was
leading a plot to kill an Israeli diplomat, a US general stationed in Germany
and a Jewish journalist in France. In late May, the deputy commander of a unit
of Iran's IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps), Col. Hassan Sayyad
Khodae, responsible for plans to murder Israelis in Turkey, was killed in
Iran.
The coalition’s
proactive anti-Iran policy included hitting an array of targets inside Iran
using drones. In February an airbase near Kermanshah, in Western Iran, was
subject to an attack that reportedly destroyed hundreds of drones. Since
then, several advanced quadcopter drones carrying powerful explosives damaged a
secret and classified military installation in Iran’s Parchin military
technology complex.
In the dying days of the
coalition, just ahead of a visit to Turkey by then-foreign minister Yair Lapid,
Mossad and its local counterpart in Turkey managed to thwart three Iranian
attacks targeting Israeli civilians, including a former ambassador.
Turkish media reported that 10 people had been arrested as part of an Iranian
plot.
Suspicions began
spreading within the top echelons of the Iranian regime that its top-level
security had been breached. In April 2022 several dozen employees of the
Iranian Defense Ministry were detained on suspicion of leaking classified
information to Israel. At the end of May Israel published a series of
intercepted Iranian documents online, including details about its nuclear
program.
The top leadership became convinced that the rot had infiltrated even to the regime’s powerful IRGC. On June 23 its fearsome intelligence chief Hossein Taeb was sacked, while on June 20 news emerged that senior Iranian commander Brig. Gen. Ali Nasiri had been secretly arrested on allegations of spying for Israel.
The coalition
government’s anti-Iran policy was balanced by a proactive approach to
strengthening Israel’s relations across the region and beyond, headed by Lapid
as foreign minister.
“The Middle East
is changing and it’s changing for the better” said Bennett in March 2022 at the
so-called “Negev forum” meeting of Israeli and Arab foreign ministers in Sde
Boker. “We’re cultivating old ties and building new bridges.”
These principles are
reflected in Israeli policies towards Egypt, Jordan, and the Gulf States over
the past year. One of the coalition government’s first foreign policy
priorities was mending diplomatic relations with Jordan, which had suffered
during the Netanyahu years. Over the past year King Abdullah II has
hosted Israel’s President, prime minister, foreign minister and defense
minister. New trade agreements were signed, raising the ceiling for
Jordanian exports to the West Bank from $160m annually to $700m, and Israel
approving the sale of an additional 50 million cubic meters of water to the
Kingdom.
The two sides also
signed an energy cooperation agreement. Helped by finance from the UAE, the
November 2021 agreement envisioned the construction of a major photovoltaic
(solar) plant in Jordan with the capacity to generate 600 MW to export green
power to Israel, while a desalination plant will be established in the Israel
to send up to 200 million cubic meters of water to Jordan.
Israel’s relations with Egypt, which were in any case strong and stable under the previous government, also saw an uplift. In September 2021 Bennett received a warm welcome from President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi in the first summit between Israeli and Egyptian leaders in more than a decade. In March, following the inauguration of a new flight route between Ben Gurion airport and Sharm el-Sheikh, Bennett took part in a trilateral meeting with Sisi and UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed.
During the coalition
government’s year of office top-level relations with the UAE, Bahrain and
Morocco were confirmed and strengthened by a succession of official visits and
new political and commercial agreements. Relations with the UK were enhanced by
Lapid’s highly successful visit to Britain in January. The
agreement with the EU to export liquified natural gas from Israel’s reserves
was another major foreign policy triumph.
Whatever the shortcomings of the coalition government at home during its short tenure of power, it can point to a succession of major achievements abroad. With its former foreign minister now leading the government until the election in November, Israel can expect successful foreign policy initiatives to continue at least till then.
Published in the Jerusalem Post, 19 July 2022:
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