My streamlined take from today’s White House meeting:
In politics as in diplomacy, there is spin and there are facts.
Prime Minister Netanyahu鈥檚 closed-door meeting with President Trump gave us plenty of the former and little of the latter.
You can always tell spin by the absence of anything concrete, when officials use words like 鈥減roductive鈥� and 鈥減ositive.”
The fewer the facts, the greater the spin. When Netanyahu calls the meeting 鈥渙ne of the best we鈥檝e ever had,鈥� you know he鈥檚 in full spin mode.
Bibi鈥檚 problem is that the facts are going against his relationship with Trump.
Trump is an impatient, mercurial man with one hardwired trait: the man craves victories. Right now, with the midterms approaching, he doesn鈥檛 see too many victories when he looks at Bibi.
Whether or not this is Bibi鈥檚 fault is immaterial. What matters to Trump are the victories.
There is no victory to announce in Iran.
There is no victory to announce in Gaza.
There is no victory to announce in Lebanon.
That may be why Trump has been making noise about a possible deal with Saudi Arabia. He’s looking for a victory.
The point is, he鈥檚 not going to Bibi.
Trump is famously transactional. Unless you can give him something he wants, you鈥檙e not very useful. Notwithstanding the statements about how well their meeting went, Bibi simply can鈥檛 give him what he wants. That’s just reality.
Even something as fundamental as stopping Iran鈥檚 nuclear program, long a point of agreement between the two, is fading in the distance.
From Trump鈥檚 standpoint, the nuclear issue has been overtaken by the bedeviling problem of the Strait of Hormuz. And bombing Iran doesn鈥檛 seem to help. What Trump sees now in Iran is a mess, not a victory. Making things worse for Bibi, many Americans connect him to that mess.
Bibi has his own need for victories that he can tout ahead of the Oct. 27 elections. Unless something breaks before then (like the regime falling in Iran), we can expect some brilliant “look at my victories” spinning between now and the elections.
Same with Trump. In the absence of any real victories to promote, he鈥檒l try to spin a “victory” narrative to prevail in the midterms.
Both men know that elections are when the spin stops and the facts rule– and the only fact that will matter is, once again, victory.
