Israeli Prime Minister Faces His (Jewish) Critics; Prepares to Meet Trump; Address UN

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu began his trip a week ago with the adulation accompanying his becoming the nation’s first sitting premier to visit key Latin American nations. One can presume the rapidly-fading memories of the first eight days away from home – the pomp, circumstance and celebratory tone — will remain in stark contrast to the second part of the PM’s journey. For the next two days in the United States, Netanyahu will be hard-pressed to escape his critics or face anything less than an uphill battle to sell his side of the story. First off, a tete-a-tete with billionaire Ronald Lauder, who was at one time a close ally but who now advises President Trump on issues of the Middle East, is not expected to resemble old-home week. Domestic politics followed the PM to a meeting with Jewish American groups more up in arms over the Netanyahu government’s reneging on its highly flaunted agreement to solve the long-standing issue of creating an area for non-Orthodox prayer at Jerusalem’s Western Wall than to hear once more why the premier will urge President Trump to alter or cancel the Iranian nuclear agreement. Many Jewish Americans would prefer the cancellation of Israeli legislation reinforcing politico-religious control of the process of converting to Judaism. Fortunately for the PM, reports from that meeting do not include fisticuffs. On Monday, Netanyahu spends an hour with President Trump reportedly devoting most of it to Iran. He is expected to encourage the president not to certify Iranian compliance again when the next deadline rolls around on October 15. Netanyahu’s stance will place him in a position he did not expect – or hope — to find himself in: again at odds with the incumbent American administration’s secretaries of state and defense, both of whom favor certification of Iranian compliance, as do many other administration officials. Many Israelis find it incongruous to hear the US SecState assert that since the agreement Iran continues to “undermine stability in Yemen and Syria” while arming terrorist groups including Hizbullah, but nevertheless supporting the continuation of an agreement many believe will result in a nuclear Iran. On Tuesday, Prime
Minister Netanyahu attends the UN Trump speech before presenting one of his own.