America’s secretary of war presented Israel as the model for the very partnership the United States now seeks to build
The Netanyahus are not going to give up this coming weekend in Florida. It’s not just any weekend, it’s the close of the civil year, set to be sealed with a meeting of personalities at President Trump’s private estate.
It was written here once that more than Netanyahu kept Shabbos in Eretz Yisrael, Shabbos kept Netanyahu — arranging his overseas trips in a way that spared him complications. If Netanyahu’s vision comes to fruition, the civil New Year, too, will “do the job” for him: a journey free of hostile elements, as the plan is that no journalists will by flying on the Prime Minister’s Wing of Zion plane.
Bibi, ascended the Knesset podium last week and struck out at the opposition and the Israeli media as one bloc, and in closed-door conversations is conveying a sense of having been wronged. The headlines and commentary pieces have painted Trump as one who reordered priorities. The Qatari connection — with an endless flow of cash, familiar to Netanyahu from the days of suitcases being ferried into Gaza — is interpreted as a relationship Trump prefers over the Israeli one. As final proof, commentators point to the sidelining of Tony Blair, a friend of Israel, from the designated role of overseeing Gaza’s rehabilitation and Hamas’s disarmament.
Netanyahu waves this away with a flick of the hand, urging skeptics to wait for the next meeting with Trump, which has become something of a steady quarterly appointment since the president’s election to a second term. When it comes to the complex relationship with Washington, Netanyahu suggests listening closely to the voices emerging from the administration. In Trump’s world, there is no statement that does not already align with the policy of the big boss.
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