Caesar Bibirius of Judea to meet Mafia Don in White House

Netanyahu is the first foreign leader to score a face-to-face with Trump 2.0. This visit may shed some light on the perennial question; does the tail wag the dog, or does the dog call the shots? Cynics will assume that Bibi is flying in to give Trump his marching orders for the next four years. It’s not hard to see why some would think that. It’s rare to see an American president push back against Israel. It didn’t happen in Trump’s first term, and it certainly didn’t happen in Biden’s four years. Things might be different this time. I’m not sure if Trump will praise Caesar, or bury him… or slap cuffs on him and pack him into a CIA jet for a one-way trip to The Hague. Yes, sounds ridiculous on its face, but bear with me. If you follow things in the Holy Land you’ll know The Greatest Leader since Moses is in a bit of a pickle at the moment. His war of choice in Gaza has been an unmitigated disaster. Fifteen months ago he promised to eradicate Hamas. After by far the longest war in Israel’s history, and the most costly in blood and treasure, we now witness the spectacle of heavily armed Hamas Al Aqsa Brigades escorting the Israeli hostages to their rendezvous with the IRC. Even without all the war-crimes talk, that in itself is a reputational death blow to the once-vaunted IDF. I’ve been wondering for weeks what was behind Trump posting that Jeffrey Sachs critique of Netanyahu. Obviously, there’s a message being sent, but what is it? Consider this scenario; Trump sidelines all aid to Israel until Bibi steps aside. All aid remains stalled until Israel elects a government that does not include the messianic nutters and will at least pay lip service to the ever-elusive “two-state solution.” Bingo! The Abraham Accords come out of the grave Bibi’s war put them in; relations are normalized between Israel and the Gulf states, who will invest the hundreds of billions to rebuild Gaza, and Trump wins the Nobel Peace Prize. The world will know it’s the dog that wags the tail. On the other hand, if the USAF is bombing Iran by the end of the week, we’ll know the cynics were right.