“The more time passes, the more I am convinced that there is nothing to worry about. Bibi [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] simply lacks the courage to make any major diplomatic move.” I was told this yesterday, Oct. 15, by a Knesset member from the Likud — one of the leaders of the party's hard-core ideological right wing — when I raised the possibility that he and his colleagues were falling asleep on their watch, and that the outline for an agreement with the Palestinians could be coming together right under their noses.

Our conversation took place in the Knesset, shortly before Netanyahu delivered his speech at the start of the Knesset's winter session. His speech referred only in a marginal, general and noncommittal way to the diplomatic negotiations. The Knesset member I spoke with and his colleagues in the Likud faction really did have nothing to complain or worry about.

The diplomatic center of gravity of Netanyahu's speech was, as expected, Iran. The prime minister more or less repeated the same familiar texts from his recent speeches to the United Nations General Assembly and at Bar Ilan University. It was only toward the end of his remarks that he referred to the negotiations with the Palestinians that were relaunched three months ago.

“We are making real efforts to bring an end to the conflict between us and the Palestinians,” said Netanyahu, without telling us anything new. “I do not fool myself into thinking that it will be easy, but I am determined to try. At the same time, I will not abandon our vital interests in exchange for a positive newspaper headline or commendations from the international community.”