Anyone trying to decipher the true profile of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should take an in-depth look at the news reports and informative details that were leaked in 2016 surrounding the endless negotiations held between Netanyahu and Zionist Camp leader Isaac Herzog about forming a unity government in Israel.

Herzog’s Zionist Camp was due to enter Netanyahu’s government as part of a dramatic move of renewing the diplomatic process with the Palestinians and establishing a regional peace initiative. The pragmatic Arab (Sunni bloc) states were supposed to join this process at a well-publicized summit. Initial details about these negotiations were published here in Al-Monitor numerous times.

An article by Barak Ravid in Haaretz on March 5 completes this fascinating puzzle. The puzzle includes (in addition to Netanyahu and Herzog) other notables such as former US Secretary of State John Kerry, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Jordanian King Abdullah II and rulers of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf states. Other actors include former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Israeli-American billionaire Arnon Milchan, agents in the European Union and innumerable other mediators and emissaries representing themselves.

Two skeptical people accompanied the process from beginning to end: then-US President Barack Obama and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Neither of these two believed that something real would emerge from this tumult.