A reset for Obama and Netanyahu?
After a rocky several months for the relationship between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the two leaders will meet Monday at the White House to chart a course for the remainder of Mr. Obama's second term.
On the agenda: Regional security issues, implementation of the nuclear deal with Iran, and the intractable issue of Israeli-Palestinian relations. And while the meeting may give the leaders a chance to extend an olive branch to each other after several public disagreements, little else is likely to be accomplished.
The two countries are working on an agreement to extend a 10-year package of military aid from the U.S. to Israel that expires in 2017, but administration officials have said that there's no chance it will be complete by this meeting. And on the thornier issue of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and the creation of a Palestinian state, officials openly admit that won't be a part of Mr. Obama's legacy.
"This is really the first time since the first term of the Clinton administration where we have an administration that faces a reality where the prospect of a negotiated two-state solution is not in the cards...in the time that's remaining," Rob Malley, the National Security Council Coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf, told reporters last week.
With a solution to the conflict out of reach at this point, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said the focus will instead be on keeping peace talks possible for a future administration and looking for the kinds of measures that might rebuild some trust, reduce tensions and "leave open the promise of a two-state solution."
Rhodes went on to say that ultimately, "Israelis and Palestinians need to believe that two states for two peoples is possible as part of a means of ensuring that you don't have continued tension."
There are, he said, "practical things" both sides can to do rebuild trust, noting that the U.S. has called on the Palestinian leadership to reject the incitement that has spurred dozens of Palestinians to carry out stabbing attacks against Israelis in the last month.
At the same time, Rhodes said Mr. Obama will ask Netanyahu how the Israeli government can "take steps to build some confidence and to make clear the fact that the aspiration of a two-state solution remains the one way to assure for security and dignity for both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples."
"We've expended enormous amounts of diplomatic capital on this," said CBS News Senior National Security Analyst Juan Zarate, referring to efforts during the beginning of Secretary of State John Kerry's tenure at the State Department to jump start peace talks. "There's only so many bites of the apple you can take, especially amid tension, conflict and ruptured relationships."
"Frankly they're reflecting the reality of the environment and the poisoned relationship between the Palestinian leaders and the Israelis, and the inability of the United States to broker effectively at this point," Zarate added.
Mr. Netanyahu's comment before his re-election in March that a two-state solution was no longer viable, given the current circumstances, was just one of many points of tension between the two leaders this year. His remark led the White House to suggest it might reevaluate U.S. policy around Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, including removing roadblocks to international efforts to recognize a Palestinian state.
"What they're both looking to achieve is a return to calm," Ilan Goldenberg, a former State Department official who now directs the Middle East Security Program at the Center for a New American Security told CBS News. "They're not going to be best friends, ever, and I think that everybody knows that they don't like each other very much. The best you're going to have is a businesslike working relationship for the next year."
The other flash point in the Obama-Netanyahu relationship was the nuclear deal with Iran. Netanyahu's objections to the deal were so strong that he accepted an invitation to address the U.S. Congress and urged lawmakers to reject the agreement the administration had negotiated.
Ultimately the deal survived an attempted vote of disapproval in Congress in spite of heavy lobbying by Netanyahu and powerful organizations like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Mr. Netanyahu's trip appears to be aimed, in part, at restoring relations with Democratic lawmakers who were attacked for supporting the deal.
Now, Goldenberg said, the most important agenda items for both sides are reopening channels of communication around the implementation of the Iran deal and having serious discussions about the long-term U.S.-Israel security relationship.
In addition to receiving an award from the conservative American Enterprise Institute Monday, Netanyahu is also scheduled to speak at the liberal Center for American Progress (CAP) on Tuesday. He will also attend the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly conference in Washington, D.C.
"His biggest challenge is going to CAP and trying to get to the progressive community," Goldenberg said. "The real audience though is these American Jews who are Obama supporters who are strong Israel supporters who supported the deal, or who supported the deal but had some reservations about it, and trying to get them back on board."
In spite of the hopes for a conciliatory meeting, the visit has already been marred by revelations that Netanyahu's newly-appointed spokesman, Ron Baratz, made disparaging comments in the past, calling Mr. Obama anti-Semitic and Secretary of State John Kerry childish in posts on Facebook.
Baratz will not travel with Netanyahu to the U.S., and the prime minister issued a statement calling the posts "totally unacceptable."
White House Spokesman Joshua Earnest called Baratz's apology for the comments "warranted" but said Netanyahu should choose his own cabinet members and staff. Rhodes said he did not expect Mr. Obama to address the comments.