The official Israeli Radio "Kan" quoted a source as saying that the visit that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to pay to the United Arab Emirates today, Thursday, has been canceled.
In response to what Israeli media reported that the cancellation decision came because of Jordan’s refusal to allow Netanyahu’s plane to fly over Jordanian airspace, the same source said that “there is no connection between the decision to cancel the visit and the route that the plane should have taken.”
While initial news indicated that Netanyahu was heading to postpone or cancel his visit to the Emirates due to his wife´s illness, Israeli media said that this development was due to Jordan´s refusal to allow his plane to fly over Jordanian airspace, in response to the occupation’s prevention of Jordanian Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah from Visiting Al-Aqsa yesterday.
A political commentator in the right-wing "Israel Hayom" newspaper, Ariel Kahane, which is close to Netanyahu´s office, said that Israel accuses Jordan of thwarting the plan to organize the visit to the Emirates today.
In a tweet on his Twitter account, Kahane quoted an Israeli political official as saying that the Jordanians did not agree to the route that the plane that was supposed to take Netanyahu to the UAE would take.
He added that the prevailing estimates in Tel Aviv indicate that the Jordanian move came in response to Israel´s decision to cancel the visit that Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah was scheduled to pay yesterday to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the occupation refused to allow the Jordanian Emir and the delegation he headed, under the pretext that the number of guards accompanying Him big.
It is reported that both Jordan and Israel recently reached an agreement allowing Israeli planes heading to the Gulf and Asia to fly over Jordanian airspace.
The official Israeli television channel "Kan" had said that Benjamin Netanyahu´s visit to the Emirates today, Thursday, came in the wake of intense pressure exerted by Mossad chief Yossi Cohen on Abu Dhabi to agree to organize this visit before the Israeli elections.
The channel indicated that some Emirati officials preferred that Netanyahu´s visit take place after the Israeli elections, but the intense pressure Cohen exerted on Abu Dhabi ultimately contributed to the approval of its organization.
She explained that the military censorship, in an unprecedented step, allowed the news of organizing the visit to be revealed ahead of its schedule.
For his part, the political commentator on "Wallah" website, Barack Rafid, revealed some of the scenes related to the efforts that led to the organization of the visit in a series of tweets on his account on "Twitter" and in a report published by the site.
According to Rafid, ten days ago Netanyahu made a phone call to the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed, and offered to visit Abu Dhabi.
The Israeli commentator explained that the Emiratis "hesitated to agree to the organization of the visit, as they did not want to appear as if they were interfering in the Israeli elections in favor of Netanyahu," as he put it.
He added that Netanyahu asked the head of the Mossad to communicate with Abu Dhabi and pressure it to agree to organize the visit before the elections, which is what has already been achieved.
Rafid highlighted the role of electoral considerations as a justification for organizing the visit by indicating that Netanyahu is interested in highlighting his "superiority" in the political field over his political opponents, particularly from the right.
It is noteworthy that the newspaper "Yediot Aharonot" revealed two months ago that Netanyahu made a secret visit to the UAE in 2018, during which he met Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed.
