FOREIGN POLICY/ISRAEL: “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives in Washington on Tuesday hoping to find in President Trump a kindred spirit and compliant ally after eight years of personal friction with President Obama.
The reality may be more complicated.
As a candidate, Trump signaled he would show staunch support for Netanyahu and his allies in Israel in crucial ways, including backing Israel’s growing settlements in the West Bank, moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, and tearing up the Iran nuclear deal…
On Friday [2-10-17], Trump told an Israeli newspaper that ‘going forward with settlements’ is not a ‘good thing for peace,’ a position that puts him far closer to traditional U.S. policy, and to Obama, than before.”
– Tracy Wilkinson, “Netanyahu may seek to reset U.S.-Israel relations in meeting with Trump,” The Los Angeles Times, Feb. 12, 2017