LONDON: Commentators from the US to Israel have speculated whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit this week to the White House revealed cracks in the relationship between an American president looking for an exit ramp from the Iran conflict and an Israeli prime minister hoping to cling to office by keeping it going.
Contrary to US President Donald Trump’s usual “ringmaster” approach to Oval Office diplomacy, his meeting with Netanyahu on Tuesday, on the five-month anniversary of the start of the US-Israel war with Iran, was held behind closed doors.
Afterward, Trump had nothing specific to say about the meeting, Netanyahu’s eighth with him since the start of his second term, posting on social media only that it was “very good” and that “many important subjects were discussed.”
Netanyahu’s comments were equally generic. He had had “an excellent meeting with President Trump … a conversation of full partnership, of mutual support, with an understanding of the shared goal to ensure that Iran will not have nuclear weapons, and also other goals.”
Back home, the Israeli media had a different take. Haaretz summed up the meeting in four words: “Trump’s irritation, Netanyahu’s desperation.”
