New York Times: A White House Ceremony Will Celebrate a Diplomatic Win and Campaign Gift
By Michael Crowley and David M. Halbfinger
“It can’t be overlooked that this is happening 48 days before our election,” said Halie Soifer, the executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America. “In the past three Israeli elections, Donald Trump tried to put his thumb on the scale for Prime Minister Netanyahu. And now Netanyahu has come to Washington amid his own domestic political crisis at home.”
Ms. Soifer noted that talk of “peace in the Middle East” was a sleight of hand, applying a term normally used to describe a hoped-for grand settlement between Israel and the Palestinians — a separate Trump diplomatic effort that has completely stalled — to far more modest diplomatic declarations.
“One has to assume this is being driven by Donald Trump’s political agenda, and interest in putting points on the board in advance of the election,” Ms. Soifer added.