Netanyahu will meet with President Trump Wednesday
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with President Donald Trump Wednesday, as the two leaders seek to open a new chapter in U.S.-Israel relations. The Israeli leader has been encouraged by Trump’s initial pro-Israel statements — a welcome contrast from the antagonistic policies and platform of former President Barack Obama.
The two will likely discuss several hot-button issues surrounding the Middle East region. They are also sure to tackle big agenda items for U.S.-Israel policy, such as whether to endorse the two-state solution, and how to best resolve Arab-Israeli disputes.
Netanyahu’s colleagues in Israel have reportedly been pressing him to bring up the decades-tried-and-failed two-state solution that is being pushed by the international community. Israel would adopt tremendous security risks to accept a two-state solution and grant Palestinian leadership a state of their own.
Currently, Palestinian leadership consists of the terror-supporting Palestinian Authority and Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror group. The Trump administration has not decided where it stands on the two-state solution, or other alternatives that would grant the Palestinians sovereign territory.
Israeli building projects in disputed lands in the West Bank is another hot-button issue surely to come up during the Trump-Bibi meeting. Israel recently announced that it was starting construction on thousands of new homes in the West Bank. The Trump White House has not made its position fully clear on any “settlements” policy, but has recognized that Israeli developments are not an obstacle to peace.
Netanyahu will also seek to gauge where Trump stands on moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the country’s capital. Arab leaders have threatened that such a move would inflame the Muslim world. However, others argue that moving the embassy to its rightful location would instead boost security interests for both the U.S. and Israel.
Regardless of where the chips end up falling on the aforementioned issues, the end of the Obama era has been universally applauded by supporters of the U.S.-Israel relationship. Obama empowered the despotic, annihilationist, anti-Israel regime in Tehran with a $150 billion relief package. He also supported the Arab Spring uprisings that set the Middle East on fire and constantly threatened Israel’s borders.
On Wednesday, Washington and Jerusalem can officially begin to repair the damage caused by the last White House administration, allowing for Israel and America to once again become unshakable allies in the pursuit of freedom, and partners in the global war against radical Islamic terror.
Source: Bibi comes to Washington: A new era in US-Israel relations