The state of relations between the Trump administration and the government of Benjamin Netanyahu is becoming increasingly reminiscent of the story told about an initiative by the Israeli Embassy in Washington and Israel supporters in Congress to add Israel to the United States as its 51st state. “God forbid,” Netanyahu cables his ambassador in Washington. “Are you nuts? Drop this stupid idea. You want to leave us with only two senators?”
Mossad Director Yossi Cohen, the man charged with Israel’s clandestine diplomacy, spoke this week about a positive change, “at the highest level, which we find very pleasant” in the US approach to Israel since President Donald Trump took office. Speaking at an Oct. 22 Finance Ministry seminar, Cohen said, “There is some sort of feeling, which I share, that the differentiation [by the Trump administration] between the good guys and the bad guys is more dichotomous, simpler and clearer.”
