B ibi Netanyahu was certainly well received last week. After eight years of being snubbed and slighted in Obama’s abode Netanyahu couldn’t have dreamed of a friendlier reception than he got from the new president.

Many Israelis kvelled over the warm words exchanged between the two leaders and especially over Donald Trump’s positive attitude toward the Jewish People and the Jewish State while openly criticizing the unfair treatment we’ve had at the hands of the UN and the governments of many nations. We haven’t heard such words of friendship for years — if ever. People are feeling that a new era has begun in the White House. Mamash as if Mashiach had come.

But after the warm welcome in Washington what now?

Rather than get carried away let’s stop and think for a moment. Even an eye unpracticed at scrutinizing political events could see that no agreements were reached on any subject at that celebrated press gathering. Donald Trump just like his predecessor demanded that Israel rein in its plans to build new housing in Jewish settlements. Dreamy hopes of annexing territory and building freely throughout Judea and Samaria were dashed that same evening before the two leaders even closeted themselves for a private discussion. The radical right didn’t get what it wanted and the left came out confused.

True the right was gleeful that Netanyahu hadn’t mentioned a two-state solution while the left went into mourning for their expired dream when Trump said “I’m looking at two-state and at one-state and I like the one that both parties like.” But what on earth is a solution that both sides will “like”?

It’s possible of course that when they spoke privately the two leaders came to agreements on some matters and perhaps they even shook hands on the “Middle East deal” that the president talked about at the press conference. We don’t know. Perhaps we’ll be hearing something about it in due time perhaps not.

In any event although I’m not a political pundit whose job description includes recanting every two years on all his prophecies that came to nothing I’d like to hazard my own prediction that nothing will come of all these discussions and sub-discussions and whispers and attempts to make peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Not a one-state solution and not a two-state solution and not regional pacts with Sunni nations that might talk secretly with Israel because they’re worried about the Iranian threat.

My personal feeling is that no matter what approach is tried it won’t lead to peace just as it never has before. Certainly it’s possible that some fragile truce might be negotiated. But peace of the kind that every American president has dreamed of for decades past — not this time either.

I’m just a simple Jew and I have no access to the esoteric world of political maneuvering. But what I have to offer is not political analysis but faith-based analysis derived from the words of Chazal. This isn’t the first time I’m quoting these midrashim but the current situation is practically screaming the words out once again. And they tell us clearly that what’s happening now is part of the plan that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is weaving from behind the scenes — the plan for the geulah.

“Bnei Yishmael are destined to hold sway over the Holy Land for a long time while it is empty and desolate just as their milah is empty and incomplete. And they will hold Bnei Yisrael back from returning there until that merit [of milah] is finished” (Zohar Lech Lecha).

“And Bnei Yishmael are destined at that time to arouse all the nations of the world to come to Jerusalem for it is written: ‘I will gather all the nations to war upon Jerusalem’ ” (Zohar in Bereishis).

“All the nations will join together in an alliance and will turn on Israel to destroy it because they established a kingdom and it will be a time of trouble for Yaakov but they will not come to the breaking point but will be saved” (Rav Moshe Cordovero).

The words are sharp and clear. They give a precise picture of what we are now experiencing in Israel yet teach us that the roots of the current conflict go much deeper than the apparent causes. And because the conflict is a spiritual one no political approach can resolve it. It’s no wonder then that every American president has failed to achieve peace however fervently he might have aspired to it. For only Hashem can resolve this and He is working on it behind the screen of human events as He brings the geulah ever closer.

Purim is coming soon and in Megillas Esther we find the paradigm of how HaKadosh Baruch Hu redeems His people with a hidden hand using the acts of human beings as tools to achieve His own purpose. Every pundit will have some explanation to offer for the failure that is sure to come. But every explanation loses its potency when we understand and integrate the prognosis given so many centuries in advance.

One of the most crucial topics in the public discussion — and probably the discussion in the Oval Office as well — is the nuclear threat from Iran especially when Iran’s development of nuclear capability is accompanied by poisonous anti-Semitic rhetoric about wiping Israel off the map chalilah and the fact that its military has missiles aimed at Tel Aviv.

These aren’t baseless fears and the suspense of this drama has only been heightened by the transition of power to an impulsive new president who spares no words of undiplomatic criticism toward Iran — while that country continues to stockpile weapons and to violate even the miserably weak agreement that the world made with it. In a nation controlled by fanatics who are already bordering on madness Trump’s blunt words are not promoting calm. Iran’s leaders have responded harshly to the president while commentators warn that the region  is on a slippery slope toward war. Here in Israel we seem to be caught in the middle.

But for this too we have a prophetic vision which by now some of you might even know by heart:

“Rabi Yitzchak said in the year that melech haMashiach is revealed all the kings of the nations of the world will provoke one another. The king of Persia will provoke the king of Arabia and the king of Arabia will go to Aram to seek counsel there. And the king of Persia will return and lay waste to the whole world and all the nations of the world will be in panic and distress falling on their faces and seized with pangs like a woman in childbirth and Israel will be in panic and distress and say ‘Where shall we come and go and where shall we come and go?’ And HaKadosh Baruch Hu will say to them ‘My children do not fear. All that I have done I have only done for you. What are you afraid of? Do not fear for the time of your redemption has come.’ ” (Yalkut Shimoni 60:499)

The situation before us is not chaos. A Divine Plan is unfolding and words were written long in advance to reassure us that we are in good Hands.