A new beginning with Israel

Watch closely when President Trump welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House Wednesday. Is Netanyahu wearing an unfamiliar face, a smile and a look of relief?

If so, don't be surprised. After 11 years in office, Netanyahu will be meeting with a Republican president for the first time.

When he met President Bill Clinton in 1996, Clinton left the meeting nonplussed, telling aides, "he thinks he is the superpower." The two went on to have an icy relationship.

Relations got even frostier with President Barack Obama, whom Netanyahu felt disrespected by from the start. The pageantry that leading heads of government are usually afforded was missing from heir initial meeting in 2010. It began more than six years defined by mutual suspicion, misunderstanding, slights both real and perceived, edging into outright hostility.

We editorialized in December that the United Nations resolution condemning Israel for building new settlements amounted to Obama's Parthian Shot at the Jewish state.