Why Netanyahu won’t attend this year's AIPAC conference
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is afraid that US President Donald Trump is determined to close "the ultimate deal" between Israel and the Palestinians, and that he will not let anyone stand in his way to such a deal.
Upon his return from his first meeting with President Donald Trump in Washington on Feb. 15, it was obvious that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be heading back to the US capital in the very near future. The official excuse would be the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference in late March, an event that Netanyahu does not like to miss. The second excuse would be that Netanyahu finally found a new buddy in the White House. After almost eight difficult years, in which he was alienated from the US administration under President Barack Obama, Netanyahu now has a good reason to pop over to Washington every Monday and Thursday. If the relationship between the two leaders is really as close as it seems, there is no reason why they would not want to meet each other as often as possible.
But Netanyahu will not be going to AIPAC, nor will he be meeting with Trump. A diplomatic source in Washington told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that it was impossible to arrange a meeting between the two men due to "scheduling conflicts." As of now, it is unclear who really tried to avoid meeting with whom. Was it Trump, who was signaling to Netanyahu not to take him for granted, or was it Netanyahu, who is worried about another meeting with Trump?
Regardless of who was responsible for that, a source in the prime minister's office said on condition of anonymity, "We're not quite there yet, but we will soon start to miss Barack Hussein Obama."
Sources close to Netanyahu confirmed that there were all sorts of concerns in Jerusalem last week following envoy Jason Greenblatt's visit to the region. Anyone who thought that the Israeli right would have it easy during the Trump era was sorely mistaken.
