Netanyahu had not wanted to confront the Palestinian issue this early in his tenure because a fierce retaliation risks angering Arab nations that only recently recognized Israel, and who Netanyahu wants to keep on board in the quest for normalization, said Nimrod Goren, a fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington and head of a think tank in Jerusalem that studies regional politics.
“The region will react to whatever happens with the Palestinians,” Goren said from his home in Israel. “So far they’ve been willing to play along, but if things go badly on the Palestinian tract, they won’t.
“The question is how quickly” they would turn on Israel and its government, he added.