Netanyahu Pushes for Moroccan King’s Visit to Israel Ahead of Elections

The office of the Israeli Prime Minister and the National Security Council are exchanging with Moroccan officials on the organization of King Mohammed VI’s visit to Israel, as soon as the lockdown measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic are lifted, report Israeli media. The sovereign would have conditioned this visit on the resumption of negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis, indicate the same sources.

According to The Jerusalem Post, Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to take advantage of this visit to increase his popularity among voters of Moroccan origin. This should allow him to win a new victory in the general elections scheduled for next March. The newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth indicated that the Likud party planned to make the normalization agreement with Morocco a central aspect of the election campaign.

The Jerusalem Post also reports that diplomatic sources have indicated that King Mohammed VI is well aware that his visit to Israel would be a source of electoral exploitation. A senior Israeli official told the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper that "negotiations are ongoing" with the Moroccan side. "I hear well that the Prime Minister’s Office and the National Security Council want this visit to take place, but I’m not sure it will be possible before the elections. However, the king can surprise us and come," he said.