Why Netanyahu quietly applauds Brexit

Tissues are not in great demand in Jerusalem these days. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not shed any tears over the decision by the residents of the United Kingdom to withdraw from the European Union. According to the rules of Israel’s zero-sum game in the international arena, the weaker the gentiles, the stronger the Jews. The greater the anxiety in Brussels, the lower the tensions in Jerusalem. The governments of Europe are competing with the US administration, goes the thinking in Jerusalem, for the championship of the Israel-haters league. The EU's clipped wings improve the prospects of removing from its agenda the European threat to thaw the diplomatic freeze with the Palestinians and freeze construction in the settlements.

As far as the prime minister is concerned, the timing of the shockwaves that rattled Europe could not have been better. It happened in the same month that France woke the long-dormant “peace process” that had been idle for more than two years, ever since Secretary of State John Kerry waved a white flag of surrender and folded up his peace initiative. This was also the month that an international conference took place in Paris, raising from the dead the problem of the Israeli occupation and its West Bank settlements. In June 2016, the European Council recorded in its minutes that 28 foreign ministers voted in favor of the French initiative and pledged to support it. Implementation of the Brexit decision will bring down the number to 27.