As he stood before the members of his Knesset faction at their weekly meeting Feb. 20, Zionist Camp leader Isaac Herzog could finally explain why he was so eager to join the Netanyahu government last year.
Just one day earlier, Haaretz newspaper revealed that a secret summit had been held in Aqaba in March 2016. Participants included US Secretary of State John Kerry, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, King Abdullah II of Jordan and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. At this four-person meeting, Kerry presented a regional peace initiative that was intended to put Israel and the Palestinians back on the negotiating track, under the patronage of other states in the region. It was on the basis of this initiative that Netanyahu entered into secretive but very advanced talks with Herzog. The goal of those talks was to bring the Zionist Camp into the government, with Herzog being given the Foreign Ministry and the portfolio for negotiations with the Palestinians.
These talks between Netanyahu and Herzog ended dramatically when Yisrael Beitenu Chairman Avigdor Liberman entered the government as its minister of defense at the end of May 2016. Herzog was subjected to a barrage of mockery from senior members of his own party, many of whom called for his immediate resignation. He was charged with inflicting a mortal wound on the party by crawling on all fours to the right-wing government, only to be humiliated by Netanyahu, who preferred Liberman over him. This was the high-water mark for Herzog as leader of the opposition. Ever since then, his political career, according to polls, has been crashing down.
Only this week, after many difficult months, could the Zionist Camp leader stand firm against the other members of his faction and tell them that "Israel was faced with a historic opportunity to enter into a dramatic diplomatic process." In an interview with Channel 10 one evening earlier, on Feb. 19, Herzog told his audience that he and Netanyahu were already exchanging draft agreements: "This document would have changed the entire face of the Middle East. In the end, it was Netanyahu who backed off and ran."
AL-MONITOR All-Access gives you unlimited access to all our journalism, the full Daily Briefing, exclusive interviews, premium newsletters, and live events — for less than $2/week.
