TRUMP PEACE: Moroccan King Invites Netanyahu For State Visit

Two days after Israel announced it was recognizing Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara, Morocco expressed its appreciation by inviting Prime Minister Netanyahu to visit.

More on this welcome quid-pro-quo can be found here.

King Muhammad VI of Morocco has invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to meet with him in Rabat.

The invitation in a personal letter came on Wednesday, two days after Israel recognized Moroccan sovereignty in Western Sahara and said it may open a consulate in the city of Dakhla.

“The visit will open new opportunities to strengthen the relations between our countries,” the king wrote.

Netanyahu’s office said he would like the visit to take place “soon.”

The Algerian-backed Polisario Front demands an independent state in Western Sahara.

The US recognized Moroccan sovereignty over the territory, in conjunction with Rabat’s establishment of ties with Jerusalem. Only 28 countries have consulates in Western Sahara.

Israel-Morocco ties have lagged behind those of other Abraham Accord signatories the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Neither Morocco nor Israel has opened a full-fledged embassy and has instead relied on liaison offices. Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana said on a visit to Morocco last month that embassies may come after Israel recognizes Moroccan sovereignty in Western Sahara.

Morocco had long sought American recognition of its claim to sovereignty over the Western Sahara, which came in December 2020 as part of a deal with the Trump Administration, according to which Washington recognized Morocco’s claim of sovereignty over the Western Sahara, and immediately after that, Morocco joined the Abraham Accords, and normalized ties with Israel. Only 28 countries have so far recognized that claim, but now that the U.S. and Israel are both among them, Rabat hopes for many more. There were thus two quid-pro-quos: first, American recognition of Moroccan sovereignty in the Western Sahara resulted in Morocco joining the Abraham Accords; second, Israeli recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara clearly led, just two days later, to King Mohammed VI’s invitation to Netanyahu to visit, and, of course, we can expect Netanyahu to announce the impending opening of an Israeli Embassy in Rabat.

Already Morocco has, during the 2 ½ years of its membership in the Abraham Accords, greatly expanded ties with the Jewish state, benefitting from Israel’s expertise in water management (including desalination, drip irrigation, waste water management, and water production from the ambient air), and in solar energy – two fields in which Israel is a world leader – as well as making deals to encourage trade, tourism, and technology. Morocco has been particularly eager to buy advanced military equipment from Israel; it recently signed a contract with Israel Aerospace Industries, which has agreed to supply the Moroccan military with the Barak MX air and missile defense system for $500 million.

Beyond those economic and security ties, there has been a warming of ties on the human level. More than a million Israelis have family connections to Morocco;  many naturally want to visit the country from which their parents and grandparents came. The Abraham Accords has created an atmosphere where Israeli tourists are welcomed. There were 40,000 in 2019, and by 2022 that number had quintupled, to 200,000; in 2023 close to 240,000 Israelis are expected to visit, almost all of them Moroccan Jews or their descendants.

The Moroccan government  decided in 2020 to include in the high school curriculum material on the history of Moroccan Jews and their  contributions to the country, a first for the Arab and Islamic world; so far Morocco is still the only Arab country to include such material in its schools;  some Israeli analysts have described the Moroccan move  as earth-shattering, a “tsunami.”

When Netanyahu arrives in Rabat, he will undoubtedly be given a warm welcome by King Mohammed VI, will likely meet with the King’s senior adviser, the Jewish Moroccan André Azoulay, will publicly lavish praise on the addition to the school curriculum of material on the history of Moroccan Jewry, visit an old synagogue to remind the world of the long Jewish  presence in Morocco, and possibly tour an  Israeli high-tech enterprise now doing business in Morocco to emphasize the new, mutually beneficial economic ties,  announce the opening of the Israeli Embassy in Rabat, meet with Moroccan businessmen to discuss those  areas of the economy – solar energy, water management, high tech – where they believe that Israel can be of greatest help to Morocco. He will remind Moroccans that more than 200,000 Israelis – mainly from the population of nearly one million Israelis whose families originated in the country – now arrive as tourists each year, and he will express the wish that more Moroccans will visit Israel. And of course he will take care to mention Israel’s recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over the Western Sahara. The welcome will be much warmer than the one that awaits Netanyahu when he finally visits the White House. That difference in temperature will not go unnoticed.