In politics as in diplomacy, there is spin and there are facts.
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s private meeting with President Trump on Tuesday gave us plenty of the former and little of the latter.
You can always tell spin by the absence of anything concrete. Words like “productive” and “positive” are good signs.
The fewer the facts, the greater the spin. When Netanyahu calls the meeting “one of the best we’ve ever had,” you know he’s in full spin mode.
Bibi’s problem is that the facts are going against his relationship with Trump.
Trump is an impatient, mercurial man who craves victories. Right now, with the midterms approaching, he doesn’t see too many victories when he looks at Bibi.
Whether or not this is Bibi’s fault is immaterial. What matters to Trump are the victories.
There is no victory to announce in Iran.
There is no victory to announce in Gaza.
There is no victory to announce in Lebanon.
That may be why Trump has been fishing around in places like Turkey and Saudi Arabia for any semblance of a victory.
The point is, he’s not going to Bibi.
Trump is famously transactional. Unless you can give him something he wants, you’re not very useful. At this point, Bibi can’t give him what he wants.
Even something as fundamental as stopping Iran’s nuclear program, long a point of agreement between Trump and Bibi, is fading in the distance.
From Trump’s standpoint, the nuclear issue has been overtaken by the bedeviling problem of the Strait of Hormuz. And bombing Iran, which Bibi surely wants, doesn’t seem to be helping. What Trump sees now in Iran is a mess, not a victory.
Bibi and his team are left with few victories on the ground and the need for brilliant spin ahead of the Oct. 27 elections.
Same with Trump. In the absence of any victories to promote, he’ll need to spin like crazy to prevail in the midterms.
Both men know that elections are when the spin stops and the facts rule.
Both men know that election day is the victory that really matters.
And both men know that’s no spin.
