“This visit reflects the rising status of Israel among the nations,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced festively as he informed his Cabinet on Nov. 25 of the “historic visit” that Chad’s President Idriss Deby was about to begin in Israel. The following day, Netanyahu hosted Czech President Milos Zeman, who joked that — not being a dictator — he could not commit to moving his country’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as Israel hopes, but he will do his best.

This week we were also informed of a behind-the-scenes diplomatic romance between Netanyahu and Sudan’s ruler, Omar al-Bashir, for whom there is an outstanding international arrest warrant for crimes against humanity and war crimes. The publications about contacts between Jerusalem and Khartoum suggest that the time has come for this African dictator to acknowledge these ties. In other words, he is requested to pay Israel with diplomatic currency for the public relations campaign it has waged on Sudan’s behalf in Washington. And so, while Israel offers to Sudan (shady) diplomatic services, it also offers other (weapons) services to other regimes. It was no coincidence that Deby said in Jerusalem, “We have a shared struggle … against the sickening evil of this century, which is terrorism.”

An Oct. 19 investigative expose in Haaretz, said to be based on some 100 sources in 15 states, revealed that one of the symptoms of the scourge to which Deby referred is the use made by despots around the world of Israeli-made spyware to monitor their political rivals and human rights activists. In other, more genteel words, those that Netanyahu himself used this week: “Every week we see the implementation of our concept, of cultivating economic-technological strength alongside security-intelligence strength to receive political-diplomatic strength.”

Netanyahu’s conception is that exporting arms and cyber weaponry to dictators, plus waging public relations campaigns on their behalf, equals highly publicized visits plus public relations for Netanyahu. According to Netanyahu’s method, in exchange for Israeli military technology, he can get excellent media exposure. In his equation, there is no room for Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and its settlements there, nor for the diplomatic freeze with the Palestinians. The victorious trumpeting heralding Netanyahu’s recent visit to Oman, his July 2017 visit to Budapest, and his enthusiastic reception of the leaders of Chad and the Czech Republic in Jerusalem illustrate Netanyahu’s unique abilities. He is the only one who can accomplish all the following feats at the same time: Cultivate the settlement enterprise and perpetuate half a century of Israeli occupation, destroy the diplomatic process, cultivate Israel’s ties with Europe and breach the boycott of the Arab-Muslim world.