First Trump-Netanyahu meeting: 3 top issues
President Trump will welcome Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House this week, with tensions between the two leaders standing in stark contrast to the priority both countries place on the bilateral relationship.
Among the top issues for the visit are maintaining a fragile ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas; taking steps toward brokering ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia; and confronting the threat from Iran.
While the first foreign invitation to the White House demonstrates the new administration’s priorities, Trump has bad-mouthed Netanyahu for years. In early January, Trump shared a video on social media with a speaker referring to Netanyahu as a “deep, dark son of a" b----.
At that time, Trump was pushing Netanyahu to sign a ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas negotiated by the Biden administration. It went into effect on Jan. 19, the day before Trump’s inauguration.
But Trump’s frustration with Netanyahu stems from the Israeli leader’s recognition of former President Biden’s 2020 election win, and Israel refusing to join arms in a fatal U.S. drone strike against a top Iranian commander in January 2020.
Trump has also complained of feeling robbed of recognition for historic changes to the Middle East carried out in his first term: brokering ties between Israel and Gulf states under the banner of the Abraham Accords; moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem; and recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is claimed by Syria.
Still, Trump exempted Israel from a chaotic and confusing blanket foreign aid freeze, preserving U.S. military sales and transfers to the country. And he revoked Biden’s sanctions on extremist Israeli settlers committing violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
“Trump, on a good day, is unpredictable,” said David Makovsky, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
“I'm sure Netanyahu doesn't feel so confident. I think he still worries, 'Can he turn on me?' I think he's gonna try to work carefully.”
Trump said he wants to be a “peacemaker” in the world and suggested solving the quagmire of conflicts in the Middle East would be easier than making a deal that ends Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“I don't read into Prime Minister Netanyahu coming as the first visitor as something that is necessarily a sign of President Trump's preference for him, but more his relevance,” said Rachel Brandenburg, the Israel Policy Forum’s Washington managing director and senior fellow.
“There is something that President Trump wants from Prime Minister Netanyahu, and giving him the gift of being the first leader is perhaps part of that exchange.”
Here are three things to watch surrounding Trump and Netanyahu’s meeting:
Gaza ceasefire
The meeting comes at the most critical point of the ceasefire agreement: Negotiators are expected to start talks toward a second phase of the deal that is supposed to lead to an end of the war.
Hamas has committed to releasing 33 hostages the group kidnapped from Israel during its Oct. 7 attack during the first phase of the deal, which is supposed to last six weeks. Dozens more people, including Israeli soldiers and American Edan Alexander, are expected to be released during a second phase of the deal.
Reaching a permanent end to the war between Israel and Hamas is a proposition fraught with pitfalls. It would require replacing Hamas’s military and governing power over the Gaza Strip with an entity that Israel can accept and the Palestinians and the Arab world recognize as legitimate.
Saudi Arabia
Trump’s motivation to see the Israel-Hamas ceasefire through is wrapped up in his goal of establishing ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, viewed as a game changer in Middle East power dynamics and a major defense against threats from Iran.
But Riyadh has made brokering ties with Israel contingent on seeing a credible and time-bound pathway to a Palestinian state — a major concession that poses one of the greatest risks to Netanyahu’s hold on power.
An opinion poll published last month showed a majority of Israeli Jews oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state. Netanyahu would also face a collapse of his governing coalition if far-right members who reject a Palestinian state leave the government.
Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, reportedly met in Saudi Arabia with a senior adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ahead of a trip to Israel to meet with Netanyahu.
Shira Efron, senior director of policy research with the Israel Policy Forum, said there’s indication that the Israel Defense Forces are making plans for how to end the war with Hamas and how that plays into the larger goal of normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
“[Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs] Ron Dermer, who is Netanyahu's closest ally and the person who speaks with Washington, he does speak about a day after. Of course, there are a lot of hoops to jump on the way,” she said.
“But this is just to say that we think this ceasefire agreement has to hold and be pushed all the way to the end, because it really would unlock everything else that needs to be done. But we're definitely not out of the danger zone on that.”
Iran
Netanyahu is likely to press Trump on giving Israel a green light and possibly support for any military strike on Iran. The Israeli leader views Iran’s support for terrorism across the region and its pursuit of nuclear weapons as Israel’s greatest existential threats.
“From the Israeli side, the one key issue that definitely is going to be on the table is Iran,” Efron said. “Netanyahu is adamant about: 'This is the great priority here, greenlight, support any assistance to strike Iran.'"
Trump has refused to answer questions on whether he’ll support a military attack on Iran, saying only a “stupid person would answer” a question on military strategy.
But Trump has also talked about diplomacy with Iran, musing that the country could have joined the Abraham Accords, and wanting to make a different nuclear deal. In November, tech billionaire Elon Musk, a close Trump ally, reportedly met with Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations in an effort to defuse tensions between Washington and Tehran.
“Netanyahu's instinct is to look for a military option on Iran, and Trump's instinct is to try to use massive economic pressure when it comes to Iran. I think that these two approaches don't have to be at cross purposes,” said Makovsky.
“Trump can say, 'I want to solve this diplomatically, through sanctions and diplomacy,' but if it doesn't work, then I think Israel is waiting in the wings."
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