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Obama and Netanyahu to Meet at United Nations

In what is being called the final meeting between the two leaders during their stormy shared-tenure, US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will meet on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday. While the venue sounds casual, the agenda is not. Obama and Netanyahu will have a face-to-face discussion about the agreement that will provide Israel with $3.8 billion in military aid per year for the next ten years – a deal that has triggered controversy on the Israeli political landscape; between the White House and Congress; and even between Netanyahu and his traditional American political base of support: conservative Republicans. Obama will also press Netanyahu to be more enthusiastic about espousing a “two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, although embracing the moniker still leaves much of the detail in question. The two men have reportedly not communicated directly in ten months. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is also on the road, presently at the Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Venezuela where he is holding meetings with ambassadors from throughout the Arab world. He’ll move on to New York to attend the UN General Assembly where he’ll meet with US Secretary of State John Kerry and other diplomats.