JERUSALEM, Israel – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces one more important meeting – at Mar-a-Lago with Former President Donald Trump – before he returns from a highly successful speech and series of meetings in Washington to the seven-front war against a myriad of Iranian proxies attacking Israel from Tehran to Yemen.
The prime minister’s 57 standing ovations before Congress attest to his unique ability to communicate, in excellent English, his government’s quest to pursue victory in the wars against Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran, as well as his hopes for the post-war future, which include a Middle East military alliance against Iran and an extension of the Abraham Accords.
His success was also measured – to some extent – by those seeking to depose him and his coalition government. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who called on the Senate floor in mid-March for Netanyahu’s ouster and new Israeli elections, grudgingly attended his address.
The Biden administration, which put off any meeting in Washington with Israel’s longest-serving leader for the better part of two years, at last followed through with the optics of a Netanyahu meet and greet at the White House.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who must now, as her party’s presumptive nominee for president, navigate the treacherous intra-party split between fiercely anti-Netanyahu progressives and moderate long-time Israel supporters, did not show up for the Netanyahu address to the joint session of Congress where she would have presided (as she did recently with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy).
Harris did meet with the prime minister on Thursday, but JNS News reports that, according to a Republican National Committee account, “Kamala’s appearance with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—after she snubbed his address to Congress—lasted a grand total of 14 seconds before the press was kicked out of the room.” Media members did manage to capture several photos before the 40-minute private meeting.
Benjamin and Sara Netanyahu’s appearances with families of Hamas-held hostages, including one with President Biden in the White House, have re-inflated hopes of a deal for the captives involving another prisoner exchange with Hamas.
The “hostages-first” policy has been pushed relentlessly for months by administration figures and media outlets in both Israel and the U.S., knowing that Hamas demands include an end to the war.
Netanyahu has held to the firm belief that only intense pressure on Hamas will compel the terror group to release the captives, and again on Wednesday night he stressed that the goal is victory.
The prime minister will return to Israel this weekend with a vocal minority marching in the streets every Saturday night for the end of his government, and Iran will likely resume the rocket launches from southern Lebanon and the Red Sea, and perhaps from Iraq and Syria.
Still, the man who broke Winston Churchill’s record this week for addresses to Congress will return with his government intact, knowing that he made his case for Israel’s future in the way that only he can – with a reminder that the people of Israel have a 4,000-year claim on their land.
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