
Will Trump see eye-to-eye with Netanyahu as he returns to the White House? – analysis
Netanyahu will hope that, as with the Iranian issue, Trump’s personal anger will be set aside
US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are likely to set aside their differences to focus on the Iranian common enemy, the incoming president’s resident pollster John McLaughlin told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.
McLaughlin, who had also worked with the prime minister, said the two “are going [to get] along very well” due to the fact that “they have a common enemy” – the Islamic Republic of Iran. “Iran does not like the United States and it does not like Israel, and that is why I think the alliance will get stronger.”
Netanyahu may hope that McLaughlin’s words become a reality, but the truth is that many in Israel, and also in the US establishment, fear things might turn out differently.
“If the Iranians are wise, they need to show a bit of respect – not too much – and this might lead Trump to tell the prime minister to set aside, for the moment, the idea of striking Iran,” was the tone of several sources who spoke to the Post. If that is the case, Netanyahu knows he will need to arrive well-prepared for his first meeting with Trump, which was arranged in a phone call between the two last week and is expected to take place in Washington in the following weeks.
The prime minister will try to persuade the new president to “finish the job” and give Israel bunker buster bombs which would allow Israel the operational abilities to strike deep underground targets – where some Iranian nuclear facilities are located. The prime minister will likely tell Trump: “I understand if you do not want to strike [alongside Israel] – but give us the ability to destroy the nuclear program.”
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