Netanyahu to meet with Obama in November

WASHINGTON - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet at the White House in early November with President Barack Obama in an apparent attempt to repair the damage to U.S.-Israeli relations brought on by the prime minister’s offensive to derail the Iran nuclear deal.

On Thursday, Senate Democrats effectively ended Republican attempts to kill the nuclear accord in a humiliating diplomatic defeat for Netanyahu, who had denounced Obama’s foremost foreign policy priority as a disaster that would bolster Iran’s power and allow it to secretly develop a nuclear arsenal that would be used to target Israel.

Obama defended the agreement as significantly boosting Israel’s security by preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Netanyahu’s decision to travel to Washington suggested a realization that having lost the fight, he must stabilize the relationship so he can shape a security assistance package that Obama is offering to bolster Israel against threats from Iran and its proxies, Hamas, the Islamist Palestinian group that runs the Gaza Strip, and Hezbollah, the Shiite Muslim militia movement that dominates Lebanon.

The United States and Israel also share grave concerns that violence and chaos will worsen in the Middle East as the Islamic State and other Islamist groups press their fight against the Iran-supported government of Syrian President Bashar Assad. U.S.-led airstrikes over the past year have failed to end Islamic State’s control of large parts of Iraq.

“Despite our well-known differences on even some key issues, the bond between the United States and Israel when it comes to our security relationship is unshakable,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said. The date for Netanyahu’s visit hasn’t been set.

Tribune News Service