Column: New Jewish Narrative
Feb 9, 2026
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Q. All it took was an opening eight-hour round of indirect US-Iran talks in Muscat, Oman, to prompt PM Netanyahu to announce an emergency trip to meet President Trump this week. Why? What dynamic is at work here?
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A. There are a number of possible explanations, all equally intriguing. Taken together, they describe the very complex triangle of US-Israel-Iran interaction and the highly questionable quality of leadership in Washington, Jerusalem and Tehran.
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Best to start with the official explanation from the Israel Prime Minister’s Office: "The prime minister believes that all negotiations must include limiting ballistic missiles and ending support for the Iranian axis."
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This presumably reflects Israel’s understanding that Washington and Tehran agreed in Muscat last weekend to discuss only the Iranian nuclear project and not a demand to limit or dismantle Iran’s missile project and to constrain Tehran’s support for anti-Israel proxies like Lebanese Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis. Netanyahu, according to this explanation, will protest to Trump and insist that Messrs Witkoff and Kushner reverse their position and demand that negotiations comprise these issues too.
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The logic of such an Israeli position reflects not only the serious damage inflicted over the last three years by Hezbollah on Israel’s north but particularly that wrought last June by Iran’s missiles during the ’12-Day War’. Here PM Netanyahu is understood to represent faithfully both Israeli public opinion and Israel’s strategic needs. Many residents of northern Israel are still afraid to return home. Iranian missiles scored frightening hits, all very visible, on the Weizmann Institute, Soroka Hospital, and IDF bases.
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Yossi Alpher's Death Tango: Ariel Sharon, Yasser Arafat and Three Fateful Days in March
"Anyone seeking to understand how Israelis and Palestinians traded the hopes of Oslo for something approaching hopelessness is well-advised to read this book. With penetrating analysis and elegant prose, Yossi Alpher has told the gripping story of three days nearly two decades ago that continue to haunt would-be peacemakers. Yossi’s faithful readers will not be disappointed with his latest effort."
Ambassador Frederic C. Hof, Bard College
"A riveting account of the crucial days in March 2002 when the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was profoundly changed for the worse. The peace camp has never recovered from those wrenching days, and we live now without any hope of a just settlement. Alpher is a highly respected expert who has spent decades studying this conflict from both sides."
Bruce Riedel, Director of the Brookings Intelligence Project
"A critical assessment of a key period in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict never before presented in such detail. The best and most capable players at the executive and political levels proved unable to forge any resolution, final or partial, because both parties continued to maintain an insurmountable gulf between themselves. This is a MUST read for anyone daring to tackle the future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and of Israel-Arab relations in general."
Efraim Halevy, former Head of the Mossad (1998-2002)
Oraib Khader and Avi Bar-On are youngish Palestinian and Israeli bachelors with security experience, readiness to do business with one another, a shared fondness for women and money, and total cynicism about the lack of peace between their two peoples.
Oraib and Avi can never become true friends: the cultural and political gaps are too wide. But as they confront a failed peace process and a bleak peace future, they readily become business partners: shady business that exploits a lot of naïve international peace aspirations.
As Oraib sums up on a visit to Sarpsborg, Norway, where the ultimately-failed Oslo peace talks were held, “There is a lesson here for those who still doggedly and hopelessly pursue a two-state solution in the Middle East. Get smart. Get out of the Israeli-Palestinian peace business. Step back and let the Jews and Arabs screw one another while making money.”