Washington: President Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are set to meet Tuesday as the Israeli prime minister faces competing pressure from his right-wing coalition to end a temporary truce against Hamas militants in Gaza and from war-weary Israelis who want the remaining hostages home and the 15-month conflict to end.
Trump is guarded about the long-term prospects for the truce, even as he takes credit for pressuring Hamas and Israel into the hostage and ceasefire agreement that went into effect the day before he returned to office last month.
“I have no guarantees that the peace is going to hold,” Trump told reporters Monday.
The leaders’ talks are expected to touch on a long-sought Israel-Saudi Arabia normalization deal and concerns about Iran’s nuclear program, but hammering out the second phase of the hostage deal will be at the top of the agenda.
Netanyahu’s arrival in Washington for the first foreign leader visit of Trump’s second term comes as the prime minister’s popular support is lagging. Netanyahu is in the middle of weekslong testimony in an ongoing corruption trial that centres on allegations he exchanged favours with media moguls and wealthy associates. He has decried the accusations and said he is the victim of a “witch hunt.”
Being seen with Trump, who is popular in Israel, could help distract the public from the trial and boost Netanyahu’s standing.
It’s Netanyahu’s first travel outside Israel since the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in November for him, his former defence minister and Hamas’ military chief, accusing them of crimes against humanity during the war in Gaza. The US does not recognise the ICC’s authority over its citizens or territory.
Netanyahu and Trump’s Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff Monday began the daunting work of brokering the next phase of a ceasefire agreement.
But Netanyahu is under intense pressure from hard-right members of his governing coalition to abandon the ceasefire and resume fighting in Gaza to eliminate Hamas. Bezalel Smotrich, one of Netanyahu’s key partners, vows to topple the government if the war isn’t relaunched, a step that could lead to early elections.
Hamas, which has reasserted control over Gaza since the ceasefire began last month, has said it will not release hostages in the second phase without an end to the war and Israeli forces’ full withdrawal. Netanyahu, meanwhile, maintains that Israel is committed to victory over Hamas and the return of all hostages captured in the October 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war.
Mira Resnick, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for Israeli and Palestinian affairs, said Trump may “have little patience for the political woes of Netanyahu if it gets in the way of the broader goals of this administration.”
“The president started his term by saying that he wanted the ceasefire to be in place by Jan. 20. That’s what he got,” Resnick said. “He is invested in this because he was able to take credit for it.”
Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is among the hostages, called on Trump to use American leverage to keep Netanyahu committed to the agreement.
Matan, 24, is among those who are expected to be included in the second phase of the deal when all remaining living hostages — including men under the age of 50 and male soldiers — are to be exchanged for a yet-to-be-determined number of Palestinian prisoners. The second phase is also expected to include the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
“I want President Trump to know there are certain extreme elements from within Israel who are trying to torpedo his vision,” said Zangauker, who travelled to Washington from Israel to join a planned Tuesday rally outside the White House. “We are representative of the vast, vast majority of Israel. The ultra-extremists are blackmailing the prime minister to do their bidding.”
Since returning to office, Trump has called for relocating Palestinians from Gaza to neighbouring Egypt and Jordan, even as Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Jordanian King Abdullah II have rejected it. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League have joined Egypt and Jordan in rejecting plans to move Palestinians out of their territories in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Yet Trump insists he can persuade Egypt and Jordan to come around to accept displaced Palestinians because of the significant aid that the US provides Cairo and Amman. Hard-line right-wing members of Netanyahu’s government have embraced the call to move displaced Palestinians out of Gaza.
Shibley Telhami, the Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland, said the push by Trump to move Palestinians out of Gaza is helpful to Netanyahu. But he added that it undercuts Trump and Netanyahu’s desire to land a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia.
The Saudis, the biggest Arab power in the Middle East, have said they would only agree to such a deal if the war ends and there is a credible pathway to a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank.
“This push by Trump doesn’t square with the idea of a Palestinian state as we know it,” Telhami said. “It’s hard to see the Saudis going along with it.”
Netanyahu Monday met with Trump’s pick to serve as ambassador to Israel, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and evangelical leaders. Huckabee has long rejected a Palestinian state in territory previously seized by Israel.
The prime minister is also expected to press Trump to take decisive action on Iran. Tehran has faced a series of military setbacks, including Israeli forces significantly degrading Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon as well as an operation that decimated Iran’s air defences. The moment, Netanyahu believes, has created a window to decisively address Tehran’s nuclear programme.
“This is one of the most important and critical meetings between an American president and an Israeli prime minister,” said Eytan Gilboa, an expert on US-Israel relations at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv. “What’s at stake here is not just bilateral relations between Israel and the United States but the reshaping of the Middle East.
AP
