Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed that most Arab countries “no longer view Israel as their enemy, but (rather) view (Israel) as their indispensable ally.” In an address to the annual Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Netanyahu stressed that the factor that unites Israel with the majority of Arab countries is the ongoing battle against the two streams of militant Islam, including the extreme Sunni-Muslims, which are led by the Islamic State, and the extreme Shi’ite-Muslims that are led by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies. In his words, “With the Arab countries, as with many Muslim countries, the question is how to fight militant Islam. And recently in Warsaw you saw something spectacular. I did. There were 60 foreign ministers, representatives of 60 countries, in a hall about the size of this one, with representatives from half a dozen Arab countries who got on the stage and spoke about Iran. They said Iran is the greatest danger we face. They spoke about Israel. One of them said, when asked what about Israel military action against Iran’s efforts to entrench itself in Syria, the answer was, even country has the right to defend itself. Not bad. They spoke about seeking solutions to problems in the Middle East. They said ‘Yes, we want to solve the Israeli-Palestinian problem, but no, it cannot be solved unless we roll back Iran’s aggression. Did you hear that? That’s a change!”
The Prime Minister also pointed to the fact that the Israeli-Palestinian problem was no longer perceived as the key obstacle in Jerusalem’s relations with the international community at large, and the Arab world in particular. Netanyahu insinuated that while Israel aspires to resolve its decades-old conflict with the Palestinians, their historic reluctance to compromise for peace has situated them on the bottom of the list of Jerusalem’s diplomatic engagement. According to him, “Everybody said that the way to get to the world, (is) first you have to solve the Israeli-Palestinian problem, that will get you to the Arab world, and that will get you to the world – at large. And I have reversed the order. I said no, it’s the exact opposite. First you build your strengths, you build your economic strength, you build your security strength, you build your diplomatic strength – you get to the world, from the world you get to the Arab world, and from the Arab world you get to the Palestinians, because they (the Palestinians) are the last to know. Okay? And half of them have been over taken by militant Islam. So, we are reversing the order.”