The Biden-Bennett summit: A US-Israeli reset?

US-Israeli duplicity and divergence over Palestine, Iran and China.

This week’s US-Israeli summit will certainly be overshadowed by the Afghan fiasco. Less certain, however, is how US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will leverage the debacle in their August 26 talks, which are likely to focus on Palestine, Iran, and China. Since both leaders are facing daunting challenges at home, and both governments have agreed to avoid political surprises and public outbursts that undermined the “special relationship” in the past, the media is likely to find the meeting dim and dull. Indeed, with Biden facing a political firestorm over Afghanistan and Bennett lacking in credibility, statesmanship and political weight, having won just 6 percent of the vote in the last elections, the visit may be more optics than substance.