March 11 was supposed to mark a major diplomatic victory for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu less than two weeks before crucial March 23 elections. The morning hours were set aside for a two-hour visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from which he was to return with a historic photo alongside Emirati Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Back in Israel, a meeting awaited him in the afternoon with Prime Ministers Viktor Orban of Hungary and Andrej Babis of the Czech Republic, exactly a week after he hosted a brief visit by the prime ministers of Denmark and Austria. Netanyahu’s high stakes diplomacy was meant to reflect his election slogan — politicians are a dime a dozen, but there is only one Netanyahu. He is in a class of his own.
His plans, however, went awry. Worse yet, the hitch shone a harsh spotlight on the ongoing deep tensions between Israel and Jordan, embarrassing Netanyahu at particularly bad timing. On the morning of March 11, a sleek executive jet sent by the UAE was parked at Ben Gurion Airport waiting to pick up Netanyahu and his entourage and fly them to Abu Dhabi — but Jordan refused to approve the flight path over its territory. The Saudis rejected requests to allow the plane to overfly their territory, and Netanyahu eventually decided to postpone his trip, calling the crown prince to apologize.
