He will meet with him at the US president’s Mar-a-Lago resort on Monday evening, . The meeting will take place amid growing fears that it could launch new attacks against regional foes, potentially plunging it into even greater instability.
The Israeli prime minister left Israel on Sunday for his fifth visit to Trump this year.
Awaiting phase 2 for Gaza
At the top of the agenda for the meeting in Florida is the , which in October ended the devastating two-year war. Although the terms agreed to for the initial phase have largely been completed, with Israeli forces retreating to new positions and the release of all living and all but one of the dead hostages, the implementation of the second phase of the president’s 20-point plan faces enormous difficulties.
There are also fears that Israel will launch new attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon, violating a truce reached more than a year ago, or against Iran, which it accuses of ramping up ballistic missile production in recent months.
Gerson Baskin, co-director of the Alliance for Two States’ peace committee, who has been involved in behind-the-scenes negotiations with Hamas, said the timing of Netanyahu’s visit is “very important” for Gaza.
Israel reluctant
“Phase 1 is essentially complete, there remains one dead Israeli hostage that Hamas is having trouble finding,” he said.
Both sides accuse each other of ceasefire violations.
Hamas has made no explicit commitment to disarmament and has had considerable success in asserting its rule in areas of Gaza where almost the entire population is concentrated.
Israel appears unwilling to withdraw from the 53% of Gaza it currently controls or allow aid to flow freely into the territory.
“Phase 2 needs to start … and I think the Americans realize that it’s too late because Hamas has had a lot of time to re-establish its presence and this is certainly not a situation that the Americans want to leave,” says Gerson Baskin.
Extreme hardship for the Palestinians of Gaza
More than 70,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have died in Gaza during the war, and almost the entire population of the region’s 2.3 million inhabitants has been displaced. Around 400 Palestinians have died in Gaza since the October ceasefire, while a huge number continue to live in conditions of extreme hardship.
Trump angry with Netanyahu
In recent weeks, heavy rains and freezing temperatures have worsened the situation in Gaza, where most buildings and infrastructure have been severely damaged or completely destroyed.
The war began with a surprise attack by Hamas in southern Israel in 2023, in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 250 others were kidnapped.
Under the next stages of Trump’s plan, an interim authority made up of Palestinian technocrats will rule the Palestinian territories in place of Hamas, and an International Stabilization Force (ISF) of thousands of troops will be deployed.
Netanyahu delays the truce
US officials have indicated that the composition of the new authority could be announced in January.
On Friday, US news outlet Axios reported that senior Trump officials were growing frustrated “as
Analysts in Israel and abroad agree. “There are more and more signs that the US administration is starting to get irritated with Netanyahu,” said Yossi Meckelberg, a Middle East expert at London-based think tank Chatham House.
“The question is what is he going to do about it because phase 2 right now is going nowhere,” Meckelberg added.
The pursuit of Netanyahu
As the Guardian reports, Netanyahu’s priority will be to convince Trump to allow Israel to take action to prevent Iran from repairing the damage to its nuclear program suffered during the brief war with Israel and the US over the summer, or developing its ballistic missile capabilities.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday that his country is at full war with the US, Israel and Europe. He added that the conflict is “more complicated and more difficult” than the Iran-Iraq war, which has left more than 1 million dead on both sides.
And Syria on the agenda
Meanwhile, efforts to reach a security agreement between Israel and Syria have not made significant progress and will also be on the Mar-a-Lago agenda, according to local Israeli media. Israeli officials have also called for more effective efforts to disarm Hezbollah under the 2024 ceasefire in Lebanon.
Netanyahu faces elections within 10 months, and the upcoming polls will influence his agenda, Meckelberg said. “It’s all about him staying in power,” he said.
Netanyahu’s difficulty at home
Polls show Netanyahu’s current coalition would struggle to form a government if an election were held now, as many voters are angered by failures leading up to the 2023 Hamas invasion, moves to continue exempting most ultra-Orthodox Jewish men from mandatory military service in Israel and a series of scandals, among other issues.
A close relationship with Trump would boost Netanyahu’s appeal to undecided voters and his base, and that suggests a public falling out between the two leaders is highly unlikely, analysts said.
Netanyahu is expected to try to convince Trump of the need for Israel, which relies on the US for many of its defense needs, to maintain a military technological advantage over potential regional enemies. Many Israeli officials were shocked when Trump said this year he would allow the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, which he called a “great ally.” State-of-the-art stealth aircraft were instrumental in Israel’s successes against Iran in the summer war.
Source: The Guardian
