Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with President Obama at the White House Monday. The meeting is the first between the two world leaders since the Obama administration struck a nuclear deal with Iran, a deal Netanyahu publicly condemned in July and called it a "stunning, historic mistake." More fromThe Media Line:
According to the pundits, President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu will either exhaust every effort in order to leave behind the angst and anger of the fight for/against the Iranian nuclear deal, or smile for photographers before retreating behind closed doors for a scathing session of finger pointing, accusations, threats and admonitions when the Israeli leader shows up at the White House for talks. The meeting is the first between the two men in a year, since that time fighting an all-out gloves-off battle over the Iranian nuclear agreement. For the first time since the men began sparring publicly, Obama overwhelmingly won a victory when despite a budget in the tens of millions of dollars and the urgency of an “existential threat” to Israel, Netanyahu and his American support team and even the Republican party were collectively unable to turn out more than an extremely modest showing of support for killing the deal. The failed fight, though, caused collateral damage in the form of the Jewish state’s bipartisanship in American politics and the egos of US lawmakers who believed they were strong supporters of Israel only to be told that their support for the Iran deal was more damning than their rhetoric was convincing. But rather than allow the rift to grow, the Netanyahu team is already reaching out to key Democrats in an attempt to short-cut any lingering ill feelings and attempt to do damage control.
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