What a difference 11 years makes. At the time, Ehud Olmert was Israel’s prime minister and he was deep in negotiations with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on a comprehensive peace agreement. Nevertheless, the policy of Britain’s government remained that an official visit by a senior member of the royal family would take place only after any such agreement had been reached.
Fast-forward to 2018. Benjamin Netanyahu is prime minister, the diplomatic process with the Palestinians has been stagnant for years and never seemed more bogged down in intractable mud. Yet on Thursday morning, Kensington Palace announced that the second-in-line to the throne, Prince William, will be visiting Israel (as well as the Palestinian territories and Jordan) this summer. And you can bet that Netanyahu will be doing everything to use the visit to burnish Israel’s (and his) international image. Assuming he’s still in office, of course. [...]
The relationship between Israel and the United Kingdom is currently slanted in Israel’s favor. Britain relies on Israel for intelligence on terror threats emanating from the Middle East much more than Israel needs the U.K.’s assistance. [...]
The end of the unofficial royal boycott of Israel (Prince Charles visited Israel in “a private capacity” to attend the funerals of Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres; and his father, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, visited his mother’s grave on Mount Zion, likewise privately), allied with the imminent arrival of a “senior royal” on an official visit, is also a sign of shifting power in Whitehall.
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