While Benjamin Netanyahu lambasted over 150 nations at the UN, his most important audience may have been a single person: Donald Trump. The careful omission of West Bank annexation from his speech suggests a calculated effort to appease the influential American figure ahead of a White House meeting.
Just a day after Trump publicly forbade an Israeli annexation, Netanyahu delivered a fiery speech that conveniently sidestepped that one explosive issue. He was happy to pick fights with the UK, France, and the entire UN, but not with a potential future, or currently influential, US president.
This indicates that for all his talk of Israeli self-reliance and defiance, his government remains acutely sensitive to the political winds in Washington. He understands that American support, particularly from the Republican party, is a strategic asset he cannot afford to lose.
By delivering a tough, right-wing speech on all other matters, he could satisfy his domestic base. By omitting annexation, he could avoid a direct conflict with Trump. It was a carefully threaded needle, a performance that tried to balance on-stage defiance with back-stage political necessity.