“The last time someone named Pompeo visited Jerusalem, it didn’t end well,” joked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on March 21. Netanyahu was, of course, referring to the Roman military leader Pompey the Great, who conquered the Holy Land some 2,000 years ago and with whom Pompeo shares a name. Netanyahu made this remark during a visit by the two men to Jerusalem’s Western Wall. Unlike the Roman general whose name he shares, Pompeo had only good news for Netanyahu. It was the kind of news that the prime minister desperately needs just two weeks before the upcoming election.

H.S., a senior figure on Likud’s strategic team, told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that Netanyahu has one answer in response to all the [police] suspicions leveled against him and to new information about the profits he allegedly earned from his steel company stocks, which rose because of the sale of German submarines to Israel. The answer can be found in the diplomatic arena. According to this claim, apart from former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni — who recently resigned from politics — Netanyahu is the only person to have experience in this particular arena. His rivals, Blue and White seniors Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, are trailing far behind him, with no real experience in foreign affairs or geopolitics.

The Likud party did, in fact, begin its campaign with the slogan “Netanyahu is a whole different league,” accompanied by video clips featuring his diplomatic achievements. Now, in the last two weeks of the campaign, Netanyahu’s diplomatic blitz is reaching its climax. There is, for example, a visit to Israel March 31 by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Before that, Netanyahu will be flying to the United States to address the AIPAC conference on March 25, as well as for a meeting and a festive state dinner at the White House with President Donald Trump. Unlike his predecessor, former US President Barack Obama, who refused to meet with Netanyahu right before the 2015 election, Trump has left the door wide open for the Israeli prime minister. Back then, Obama even tried to help Netanyahu’s then rival, Zionist Camp party chair Isaac Herzog, by sending his own Secretary of State John Kerry to meet with him right before the election. Next week’s meeting between Netanyahu and Trump will take place at the same time that Netanyahu’s current political rival, Benny Gantz, is scheduled to address AIPAC. What this means is that the Israeli media will be focused mainly on what happens with Netanyahu at the White House.

Pompeo arrived in Israel as part of a larger visit to the region, which included stopovers in Kuwait and Lebanon. His meetings with Netanyahu focused on the Iranian issue and, even more prominently, on preparations for the US withdrawal from Syria and growing concerns about increased Iranian involvement in that country.