8 Of course, it is difficult to know what is going on in the minds of Israeli decision-makers. But the result seems clear: Netanyahu has decided to mix deterrence with opportunity. Undoubtedly, he believes that the Arab revolutions will not be prepared to move closer to peace on his terms and that they will most likely make the current peace colder than the polar icecaps. However, Israel can live with frigidity. Indeed, the Israeli right has never been keen to make the climate warmer, let alone to turn Israel into a normal country at home with others in the Middle East, a notion that seems to find few takers in Israel. As is the case with epic narratives, the Arab spring and the Obama initiative are two threads of a story whose coming together does not herald an end, but rather forms one out of many chapters. The fate of this coming together is still difficult to determine. However, there are elements that seem to be propelling it forward, such as the recent French initiative offering to host a Palestinian-Israeli summit meeting, which must be seen against the backdrop of the looming September deadline when the Palestinians and Arabs plan to seek a UN General Assembly Resolution recognising a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. France is clearly striving to score points for its new more active approach to the Middle East. However, it is also working in the same direction as Obama, which is to dissuade the Palestinians and Arabs from going to the UN in September. Curiously, all this is unfolding at a time when the Arabs' own collective body, the Arab League, is weaker than ever. No Arab summit has been convened, and the current secretary-general is preoccupied with his own political future in Egypt. Meanwhile, bilateral relations that have long rested on an Egyptian-Saudi footing are in some confusion. There seems to be considerable wavering between the principle that this basis should remain firm regardless of HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_018092