On many occasions, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has shown an impressive ability to navigate conflicting messages and play both sides. He set new records last week when he announced that he wanted to renew negotiations with the Palestinians, and then just a few days later on Sept. 9 posted a video to Facebook equating evacuating Jews from the West Bank with “ethnic cleansing” by the Palestinians.

On Sept. 5, Netanyahu met in his office with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister for Middle East Affairs Mikhail Bogdanov, who was visiting the region to promote a peace summit in Moscow. At the meeting, the prime minister made it very clear that he was willing to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and to renew negotiations with him without any preconditions.

The next day, Netanyahu flew to the Netherlands on a diplomatic visit. At a press conference with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Netanyahu repeated what he told the Russian envoy: “I have said this hundreds of times and I am reiterating it now. I do not care about the place, be it in Holland, Moscow or anywhere else — this is not a problem, and it certainly could be in Moscow. I have said this to President [Vladimir] Putin. I said this on Sunday to his envoy Bogdanov.” He also claimed that Abbas is refusing to relaunch negotiations without preconditions.

Set against the background of Bogdanov’s visit to Jerusalem and Ramallah, the opposition chair, Zionist Camp leader Isaac Herzog, was encouraged by these statements. Ever since the 2015 election, Herzog has been engaged in lengthy negotiations of his own with Netanyahu about joining the government. These negotiations have had their ups and downs. Herzog considered Netanyahu's statements as a positive signal, indicating that the diplomatic process could be rising from its slumber with the possible summit meeting in Russia. This also coincides with what Herzog has allegedly heard privately from Netanyahu in secret talks that Herzog fervently denies took place.