On 28 July, while Benjamin Netanyahu was meeting Donald Trump behind closed doors in the White House, Israeli soldiers and settlers were storming several towns in occupied West Bank. Inside the Oval Office sat US vice-president J.D. Vance, secretary of state Marco Rubio and secretary of war Pete Hegseth. Outside it, the violence revealed the meaning of a meeting officially described as ‘positive and productive’.

After waging a war his predecessors had avoided, to project that he was made of sterner stuff, Trump's new imperative is to project that he also has what it takes to end it. Netanyahu wants to persuade him that the war is unfinished. Both men face elections within months, and their electoral calculations are shaping the violence sweeping the West Bank.

Trump has once again paused American attacks on Iran. He is again saying talks with Tehran are going well while simultaneously threatening renewed bombing. The playbook is familiar. He understands this prolonged conflict, the disruptions it has caused and its inflationary impact on fuel and other commodities are campaign disaster going into the November midterms. He is clinging to hope that a deal even now can be spun as proof that force produced diplomacy.

Netanyahu reads the calendar differently. Israel votes in late October. He needs an enemy that appears dangerous enough to require his leadership, yet vulnerable enough to allow him to claim victory. The campaign against Iran has not supplied that balance. Israel has endured weeks of missile attacks while Iran still retains offensive capabilities.........

© National Herald