US-ISRAEL TIES NOT IN REAL PERIL

THERE was a good reason why Benjamin Netanyahu and Barack Obama sidelined their wellknown antipathy in this meeting: ultimately, Israel and the US share critical strategic interests in the Middle East.

In a briefing hosted by Bicom, Dr Jonathan Rynhold, senior researcher at the Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University said that “despite the bad personal relationship between Netanyahu and Obama, intelligence co-operation between Israel and the US has never been more intimate and I expect that to continue”.

For this reason, he said, everybody wanted this to be a good meeting “in which the public message which goes out is that the special relationship between the US and Israel remains as robust and as strong as ever”.

Mr Rynhold explained: “In part that will be to do with Israel’s capabilities in being able to monitor the Iran deal; it will also be about regional co-operation against Iran’s support for terrorism and for funding terror. The Americans will want Israel’s help and there’s agreement in a broad sense on trying to combat Iranian efforts to destabilise the region.”

Two issues that remain more open to debate, he said, are what to do about Syria and the terms of Israel’s insurance policy regarding the Iran deal.