The meeting set for Sept. 21 in New York between US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not be a face-to-face one. Each man will be turned outward to his own domestic audience. Obama’s every move, every word and facial expression are being watched. Any inconsistency that emerges from the meeting with the prime minister will be used by Republican candidate Donald Trump to raise a cacophony of slander against “enemies of Israel” in the White House that includes the president’s colleague and candidate, Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Even worse for Clinton’s campaign, the man who made "Fighting Terrorism" his middle name (and the title of a book he authored) will land in New York the day after it was revealed that the explosion in the city was a terror attack. How could one hurt the American people’s best partner in the fight against the bad guys? Only a week ago they marked 15 years to the terrible massacre perpetrated by al-Qaeda at the Twin Towers. On Oct. 1, Israel will mark a year from the start of the current uprising, when Heitam and Naama Henkins were murdered in the first of a new series of stabbing attacks.