Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Israel, U.S. show bond
Both under legal scrutiny before AIPAC, visit
WASHINGTON — No world leader has forged a closer or more public camaraderie with President Donald Trump than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who visits the White House on Monday battling corruption allegations that have echoes in the White House itself.
Both have sought to put their tight bond on frequent display during Trump’s first year as president — and that is likely to be especially true for Netanyahu now.
The Israeli prime minister is under legal scrutiny at home for his possible role in several far-reaching bribery scandals, including allegedly granting regulatory benefits worth millions to Israeli telecom giant Bezeq. He denies the allegations and is eager to highlight his politically valuable relationship with Trump, the pro-Israel leader of his country’s most important ally.
Netanyahu is expected to invite Trump to a ribbon-cutting in May for the controversial relocated U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, U.S. and Israeli officials said.
Hours after Israeli police finished questioning him in one case Friday, Netanyahu released a Facebook video saying the investigations will yield nothing and highlighting his “important” visit to Washington and the meeting with “a great friend of Israel, a true friend, President Donald Trump.”
But Trump has problems of his own that are thrust into the spotlight by Netanyahu’s visit. Four former Trump associates have been charged or have pleaded guilty in an ongoing special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. And the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, is under scrutiny for blurring business and government work and has lost his toplevel security clearance.
“The fascinating thing is how strong the parallels are between Trump and Netanyahu,” said Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, a liberal U.S. proIsrael advocacy group. “This swirl of corruption and investigation, the conflict of interest, is at the center of both administrations. You see both men respond in the same way — attacks on fundamental institutions of democracy like the judiciary and the media.”
It’s all contributing to a growing pessimism in the U.S., Israel and the West Bank about prospects for a Trump-brokered initiative to succeed. The Israeli-Palestinian peace proposal that Kushner has worked on for more than a year remains on the shelf and is not at the top of the agenda for a meeting arranged alongside Netanyahu’s address to the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Palestinians rebuffed U.S. officials and wrote off Trump as a peacemaker after his December announcement that he would move the embassy from neutral Tel Aviv to disputed Jerusalem. Trump retaliated with an aid cut and the threat of more.
Netanyahu is addressing AIPAC in person this year, rather than by video link, to underline his pull with the Trump administration and conservative American Jews, analysts in the U.S. and Israel said. Vice President Mike Pence, U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman will appear on behalf of the administration. The threeday conference, which concludes Tuesday, brings thousands of pro-Israel officials, lawmakers, activists and academics to Washington.
But beneath the veneer of unity, Israel worries that Trump is backsliding on a pledge to “fix” or dismantle the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Israel also is concerned that behind Trump’s tough public stance toward Tehran is an acquiescence to Iran’s growing presence in Syria and influence in Lebanon — two Israeli neighbors.
“The Israelis now are undoubtedly sounding the alarm,” said Jonathan Schanzer, who researches Iran’s regional influence at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Still, it’s in Netanyahu’s interest to keep such disputes out of public view, said David Makovsky, a former State Department official who worked on Mideast peace talks.