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Bennett’s meeting with Biden overshadowed by Afghanistan attacks

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was hoping for a festive first official meeting with US President Joe Biden, but the suicide attacks at Kabul airport changed all that.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett listens during a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Willard Hotel, Washington, Aug. 25, 2021.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett listens during a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Willard Hotel, Washington, Aug. 25, 2021. — Olivier Douliery/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Shortly before the start of his first meeting with US President Joe Biden Aug. 26, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett posted a photo captioned “final preparations,” showing him sitting at the head of a table surrounded by advisers. The photo was shot at Washington’s Willard Hotel, where Bennett and his entourage were getting ready to set out for the White House nearby.

In Israel it was prime time, with all the major networks ready in their studios, hosting top diplomatic and security analysts, waiting for their correspondents on the ground to report on the start of the meeting. The Biden-Bennett summit, as it was being dubbed, was getting high-profile coverage, highlighting the fact that for the first time in 12 years, the name of the president’s Oval Office guest would not be Benjamin Netanyahu.

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