LOOKING FORWARD Perhaps a bit premature but the sign on a downtown Jerusalem building expresses hope for the future (Photos: AFP/Imagebank)

T he first e-mail that accredited members of the foreign press in Israel receive on Motzaei Shabbos is the prime minister’s schedule for the coming week.

Normally it’s a routine memo with a reminder of the Sunday morning cabinet meeting and the PM’s travel schedule.

This past week’s e-mail was unusual.

It contained a video and statement from Prime Minister Netanyahu extending an olive branch to the Iranian people.

“It struck me recently that I’ve spoken a lot about the Iranian regime and not enough about the Iranian people” Netanyahu said. “We are your friend not your enemy.”

Given that Binyamin Netanyahu is one of the most calculating politicians on the planet one can assume his message was aimed at a wider audience than just disaffected Tehran youth. Indeed it was designed to put him on the same geopolitical page as America’s new president.

“Donald Trump is not pleased with the Iranian nuclear agreement and their quest for hegemony in the Middle East” said Efraim Inbar director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies addressing the foreign press in Jerusalem the day before Trump took office. “He will look for Iranian violations and Israel will help him find them.”

Staking out Iran as his opening position was in keeping with Netanyahu’s long-held belief that Tehran is Israel’s leading and perhaps only existential threat. However Netanyahu’s decision at Sunday morning’s cabinet meeting to postpone a scheduled vote to annex Maaleh Adumim — Judea and Samaria’s largest city — until next month’s Trump-Netanyahu face-to-face meeting was seen as a show of clay feet.

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked a member of the Jewish Home party told Army Radio: “This is a sympathetic administration. There is no reason why we can’t take unilateral steps that are right for us.”

Maaleh Adumim’s mayor Benny Kashriel didn’t address the annexation issues in an Inauguration Day interview with Mishpacha but he did urge Netanyahu to press forward to end the settlement freeze. “I hope the prime minister will take advantage of this opportunity and allow us to build” Kashriel said. “I am sure that this is a new era for the State of Israel.”

During the election campaign President Trump clearly indicated that he didn’t feel Israel was treated with the proper respect by the Obama administration and he vowed an attitude adjustment once he took office.

“Trump sees Israel as an ally. To him we’re the good guys” Professor Inbar says. “Trump is surrounded by right-wing Orthodox Jews. All of them share the same view on Iran and the UN and are positively inclined toward Israel.”

However this doesn’t mean that Trump has handed Netanyahu an Aladdin’s lamp for him to rub and make three wishes. “Trump’s Middle East policy will be dictated by deals made with Russia” says Professor Inbar. “Netanyahu is a realist who understands what he can get from an American administration.”