As soon as Defense Minister Benny Gantz returned from his meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah late on Aug. 29, his staff notified the country’s political reporters about that unusual event.

Over a decade had passed since a senior Israeli official met with the Palestinian leader. It was, therefore, important for Gantz to show that he was spearheading a change in policy from within the government. He could have decided, of course, that the meeting would be kept secret, but he actually wanted the public to know about it. What made the meeting so important was the fact that it was held at all. So the meeting was reported extensively and rightfully evoked great interest.

In all of Benjamin Netanyahu's governments of the past decade, the government made great efforts to weaken Abbas. Israel took pains to depict him as irrelevant. If anything, Jerusalem tried to shame him.

In 2014, for example, then Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said Abbas had lost all touch with reality. Then, in 2015, Education Minister Naftali Bennett — who now happens to be prime minister — warned Netanyahu not to meet with “the terrorist” Abbas. This occurred at the start of a new wave of terrorism that came to be known as the “intifada of knives.” At the time, Netanyahu said he would like to meet with Abbas to see if that could mitigate the violence.