Political isolation
Political isolationiStock

One-hundred-sixty-one heads of state and various senior officials are expected to arrive in Israel for Israel's 70th Independence Day celebrations in April 2018, Israel Hayom has learned.

This is an initiative by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who plans to bring to Israel representatives from the highest echelons of all countries with diplomatic ties with Israel in order to disprove the allegation of Israel's "political isolation."

Of the world's 194 countries, Israel has relations with 161.Netanyahu, who also serves as Foreign Minister, recently raised the initiative with the Foreign Ministry, whose members will be charged with organizing the arrival of all the representatives during the week of Israel's 70th independence anniversary.

Netanyahu said that the meeting could be attended by presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers or other high-level representatives, and that the principle is that representatives from all 161 countries with whom Israel has contact will arrive to Israel at the same time. This is a large-scale logistics project, both from the diplomatic side and, of course, from the organizational security aspect, the report said.

The aim of Netanyahu's initiative is to create a "perception of victory" that will disprove the assertion that Israel is "politically isolated" - an argument that is raised time and time again when the discussion focuses on the price Israel pays in the international arena because of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

Netanyahu has spoken many times on the issue and repeated that there is no political isolation against Israel. According to him, there is a Palestinian attempt to create political isolation against Israel through BDS and international UN forums, but in practice, he explains, the situation is different.