A senior Israeli Foreign Ministry official told Al-Monitor that the ministry’s policy research branch has begun preparing policy papers for an eventual meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the next US president, on the occasion of Netanyahu’s participation at the March 26, 2017, American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference. Thus, the ministry hopes to end the crisis in the relationship between the countries. The plan is to emphasize, both in the prime minister’s meetings there and in his AIPAC speech, Israeli security predicaments in relation to Iran and its terror proxies in the region — Hezbollah and Hamas — and to base future US-Israel relations primarily on security cooperation.
Meanwhile, US-Israel relations continue to deteriorate due to Israel's continued opposition to the Iran deal. There were many sharp disagreements between President Barack Obama and Netanyahu in the last eight years, but none as virulent and deep as the Iran nuclear agreement. The scars and anger over Netanyahu's struggle against the Obama administration inside the American political arena are still alive in Washington, at all senior working levels. These sentiments are continuously nourished by Israeli statements, such as Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman's comparison Aug. 6 between the Iran deal and Hitler's Munich Agreement of 1938 — with the US administration expressing to the prime minister its strong dismay. Yet it is not Liberman but Netanyahu who is viewed by the US administration as the mastermind behind the Israeli anti-Obama campaign. In a background briefing Aug. 23 to Israeli ultra-Orthodox reporters, Netanyahu reportedly praised his victory (according to him) over Obama.
