Israeli PM visit comes as Donald Trump wavers on policies
Israeli PM visit comes as Donald Trump wavers on policies:- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s first trip to the White House since the election of President Trump, who Netanyahu called a “true friend” of Israel, comes as the president has backed away from several campaign promises regarding U.S.-Israeli policy.
Netanyahu arrives in Washington tomorrow, and will meet with Trump at the White House Wednesday in what has been seen as a chance to reset the relationship between the leaders of the two countries — a relationship that became strained in the last administration as Netanyahu clashed with former President Barack Obama on a number of policies, including Obama’s work brokering the Iran nuclear deal and his criticism of Israeli settlement expansion.
While Trump excoriated Obama over those policies on the campaign trail, since taking office he’s accepted them.
Trump, who promised to rip up the Iran deal before the election, now said through aides that the U.S. will abide by and enforce the multilateral pact. Trump has also taken a step back from his campaign vow to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
“I am thinking about the embassy, I am studying the embassy and we will see what happens,” Trump said in an interview Saturday with Israel Hayom, an Israeli newspaper owned by Trump campaign donor Sheldon Adelson. “The embassy is not an easy decision.”
Trump also said in the interview that Israeli settlements “don’t help the process” toward peace with Palestinians months after criticizing the Obama administration for abstaining from, rather than vetoing, a U.N. Security Council resolution that condemned Israel’s expansion of settlements in Palestinian territories, a measure that infuriated Netanyahu.
But Trump’s policy reversals may not lead to the same strained relationship as under Obama’s administration.
“It’s more of a change in tone than in policy,” said Guy Ziv, a professor at American University’s School of International Service’s U.S. Foreign Policy Program.
Ziv said that Trump’s shifts may actually give Natanyahu cover from some more right-leaning members of his party who have been pushing the prime minister to abandon the two-state solution for peace and to more aggressively support settlement expansion. Trump’s stance may give Netanyahu wiggle room, Ziv said.
“He is really feeling the pressure at home from his base,” Ziv said. “While they may be disappointed with Trump walking back some of those things, it could actual help Netanyahu. I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump and Netanyahu haven’t been coordinating” the messaging.
Source:- http://www.bostonherald.com/news/us_politics/2017/02/israeli_pm_visit_comes_as_donald_trump_wavers_on_policies
