Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu marked a significant diplomatic achievement this week when, after the State Department announced plans to open the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem in May to mark Israel's 70th Independence Day, President Donald Trump said he may attend the opening ceremony.
The two leaders met at the White House on Monday, their fifth meeting since Trump took office a year ago. They touched on the moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace process, but primarily focused on Iran, or more precisely how the Iranian threat to Israel can be neutralized.
On Tuesday, speaking at the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee's annual policy conference in Washington, Netanyahu focused on "thriving Israel," a topic he repeatedly presents in international forums, discussing how Israel is an economic, cyber, military, intelligence, technological and agricultural power.
Netanyahu also stressed that Israel's global diplomatic standing is thriving, with Israel now maintaining flourishing bilateral ties with 160 countries, including collaborations in the fields of politics, security, economy, education, health, commerce and tourism. Public support for Israel in the United States is also rising, with the latest Pew Research Center survey pegging it at 74% – the highest in three decades.
Netanyahu's address at AIPAC, which always offers him an enthusiastic welcome, reminded everyone that he is a gifted orator, as well as the best salesman and spokesman Israel could hope for on the international stage.
Call it "business as usual," call it "keeping his focus on the important things," or say it is merely part of the prime minister's strategy to bolster the public perception that he is irreplaceable – at the end of the day, in terms of public appearances, Netanyahu has had a very good week.
However, behind the scenes, a storm is raging, as the prime minister is experiencing both personal and political crises.
Netanyahu is the subject of a complex criminal investigation. This week, former spokesman Nir Hefetz turned state's witness against him, becoming the third of Netanyahu's confidants (after former bureau chief Ari Harow and former Communications Ministry Director Shlomo Filber) to be recruited by the police in their efforts to build a solid case that could lead to him being indicted.
At the same time, the conflict between Kulanu head Moshe Kahlon, Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman and United Torah Judaism chairman Yakov Litzman over the military draft bill and the state budget is growing worse by the day and the pundits are already saying the coalition crisis will lead to early elections.
Netanyahu and his associates did not hide the fact that the prime minister was dealing with the coalition crisis during his visit to the United States, but no one knows to what extent it has affected his performance. So far, when asked, all Netanyahu has said is that he has no interest in calling early elections.
Trump had Netanyahu stay at Blair House, the president's official guest house, just across the road from the White House – a sure sign that the Israeli prime minister was a welcome guest.
Netanyahu felt so much at home that he posted a video of a guided tour of Blair House on his Facebook page, in which he spoke admiringly of the American presidents whose statues are scattered around the lavish residence: Franklin Roosevelt, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson. Beside the statue of Alexander Hamilton, the first Treasury secretary, he said, "The great tragedy was that he died in a stupid duel with the U.S. vice president."
On the eve of his meeting with Trump, Netanyahu held a preparatory meeting. The photo distributed by the Prime Minister's Office of the meeting showed Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer, who is Netanyahu's most senior and closest adviser, as well as political adviser Yonatan Schechter, chief of staff Yoav Horowitz, National Security Adviser Meir Ben Shabat and Netanyahu's military aide, Brig. Gen. Eliezer Toledano.
Compared to photos from previous meetings, two people were conspicuously missing: diplomatic envoy Isaac Molho, who has retired, and the director of communications at the Prime Minister's Office – the position once filled by Hefetz. While no permanent replacement has been named at this time, the acting communications director is, for the first time, a woman – 26-year-old Shir Cohen, the only woman on Netanyahu's team of advisers to travel with him to the U.S.
Dermer, the veteran adviser in the group, was the ambassador during President Barack Obama's second term as well. Dermer always said that despite policy differences, ties with the previous administration were close, touting the unprecedented $38 billion defense aid package to Israel as proof.
But one official said that during the Obama era, "The Iranian elephant was always in the room. We wanted to have an actual say about the nuclear deal with Iran, just as Japan and South Korea were part of the negotiations on the nuclear deal offered to North Korea. We constantly warned that during the entire process, the Americans consulted with nuclear experts while forgoing the advice of experts on Iran, to devastating results. The deal excluded Iran's ballistic missiles program and its [nuclear] research and development programs."
According to another official in the Prime Minister's Office, Netanyahu and Trump are "on the same page and the warm relations between the two governments, in the broadest sense, are better than they have ever been."
Borrowing from words used by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill during World War II, Netanyahu told AIPAC, "Darkness is descending on our region."
By mid-May, Trump is expected to decide on the fate of the 2015 nuclear deal. He can either reopen it for negotiations and revise or exit it, as Israel has suggested, or let it stand, as Iran and the Europeans would prefer.
Following their meeting on Monday, Netanyahu believes Trump understands the full scope of the problems in the deal and feels it is his duty to revise it.
The first half of Netanyahu and Trump's meeting focused on the nuclear agreement with Iran. The rest of the time was spent discussing the situation in Syria and Lebanon and in the Palestinian Authority and the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinians have made it clear that Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and relocate the U.S. Embassy there is unacceptable to them, saying the move has all but excluded them from the peace talks.
"The Palestinians, I think, badly want to come back to the table. If they don't, we don't have peace, and that's a possibility also," Trump told reporters in a joint press conference with Netanyahu on Monday.
As things stand, the presentation of the peace plan the Trump administration has been working on for the past year is moving further away. The current administration, much like the previous one, has failed to provide satisfactory answers to fundamental security issues that are sure to arise once Israel withdraws from areas the Palestinians seek for their future state. Even today, no one has a magic cure that can resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
