On November 9^th, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit the White House, his first meeting with President Barack Obama since the Iranian nuclear deal took effect. The Obama-Netanyahu relationship deteriorated over the past year, culminating in Netanyahu’s March speech before a joint meeting of Congress where he sharply criticized the agreement. The president refused to meet with Netanyahu during that visit.

Eight months later, Netanyahu remains every bit as opposed to the nuclear deal, but his efforts to derail it have failed. Congressional Republicans were unable to muster enough votes to block it and it officially took effect on October 18. Now, the implementation process begins.

As Obama and Netanyahu seek to use the November 9^th meeting to mend their relations, we sat down with Michael Herzog, a retired brigadier general in the Israeli Defense Force who has held senior positions under four Israel ministers of defense. His fathers was Israel’s president from 1983 to 1993 and his brother currently leads the opposition party.

Herzog explained why the recent violence in Israel poses such a threat to security and argued that the recent military actions by Russia and Iran in Syria are a result of the nuclear deal. He doesn’t expect any major new initiatives from Obama and Netanyahu during the visit but is hopeful they can repair their relationship enough to work together across an array of issues, from implementation of the deal to the Islamic State in Syria.

As to whether the visit could jumpstart the Israel-Palestinian peace process, as Secretary of State John Kerry wants, he’s less sanguine: “As someone who’s spent over two decades of his life negotiating peace with the Palestinians and almost all of our Arab neighbors, we’re at a very low point right now.”

Danny Vinik: How worried are you about the potential for a Third Intifada?

Michael Herzog: When you talk about Intifada, you imagine a mass popular eruption with some political orientation and guidance, and this is not the case that you see now.  You have young people, mostly teenagers, taking matters into their own hand out of frustration, incitement, and various other reasons. This wave is carried through social networks. It is fueled by a certain atmosphere, and these people, on an individual basis, decide to take matters in their own hands and do it. … I am concerned because of this characterization. It means, as I said, less addresses to deal with, less restraining elements. It could go on, this low-key four, five, six incidents a day, for quite a while.

Read the article in full at Politico.