Possible Meeting Between Obama and Netanyahu After a Year and a Half in Mid-November

The White House announced the readiness of the U.S. President to meet with the Israeli Prime Minister in early November, two months from now. If this meeting takes place, it will be the first meeting between the two in a year and a half. According to Reuters, Josh Earnest, the White House spokesman, mentioned Friday, September 20, that early November, mid-Aban, is the date for this possible meeting and said, "The leaders are determined to strengthen relations." Mr. Earnest stated that the meeting would take place in Washington, and for this purpose, the Israeli Prime Minister will be invited to the White House. Meanwhile, the United Nations General Assembly will begin its work in about three weeks, and the U.S. President and the Israeli Prime Minister are among the leaders who will speak at various times during this event. According to Israeli media, Benjamin Netanyahu will also participate in the annual meeting of the American Jewish Federation on November 8, and it seems that this date is being considered for Netanyahu's meeting with Obama. The White House statement about the meeting between the two officials was issued one day after developments in the U.S. Congress, where the failure of opponents of the Iran nuclear deal became more serious. Netanyahu has traveled to the U.S. twice recently, but each time Obama refused to meet with him. Barack Obama had initially emphasized that he would not meet with Netanyahu due to the Israeli elections, as Netanyahu is the leader of one of the parties in these elections, and then argued that he would not meet with Netanyahu until a nuclear agreement with Iran was reached, knowing that even after such a meeting, the Israeli Prime Minister would "stand in front of the cameras and strongly criticize the nuclear negotiations with Iran." Netanyahu's speech in the U.S. Congress late last year against the nuclear negotiations with Iran caused deep displeasure for the President and the U.S. government. Despite this speech by Netanyahu and his numerous meetings with American senators in recent months, the Senate last Thursday effectively thwarted Republicans' efforts to reject the nuclear deal with Iran through a vote. Meanwhile, opponents of the deal in the House of Representatives on Friday voted 269 to 162 against the nuclear deal with Iran, but this vote was symbolic and will not affect the implementation of the agreement. However, Republicans still have until September 26 to employ other tactics against the agreement and have even raised the possibility of suing Barack Obama in the Supreme Court, although their defeat seems certain. The majority of Republicans and four Democratic senators opposed to the agreement repeated Netanyahu's arguments against the deal in their speeches during recent Senate sessions, citing the "danger" to Israel as their motivation for opposition. However, Barack Obama called the Senate vote on Thursday a "historic action." According to Reuters, the White House spokesman said that the meeting with Netanyahu would also include discussions on U.S.-Israeli security cooperation. In this context, Joe Biden, the U.S. Vice President, emphasized on Wednesday that his country wants to resume security and military meetings with Israel as soon as possible. The Israeli opposition, like analysts in the media of that country and the U.S., has considered the failure of opponents of the nuclear deal to reject it in Congress as a defeat for the Israeli Prime Minister and his American supporters. Analysts in Israeli media have gone so far as to describe the possible upcoming meeting between Obama and Netanyahu as a meeting of the "victor and the vanquished."