Like two first-chair musicians with differing interpretations of the same symphony, U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have not always been on the same page.
But the music was perfectly harmonious at Monday night’s White House dinner between the two leaders – the prime minister’s third visit to Washington in the not-yet six months of Mr. Trump’s second term.
The president and prime minister lavished praise on each other – Mr. Netanyahu, relying on the effectiveness of flattery with Mr. Trump, even presented his host with a copy of his letter nominating him for a Nobel peace prize.
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While the two leaders have made efforts to emphasize their cooperation, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu offer different visions of Gaza and Iran. Nevertheless, the White House dinner Monday night presented a harmonious tableau.
“We had tremendous success together,” Mr. Trump said, apparently referring to last month’s joint bombing campaign on Iranian nuclear facilities, as he greeted Mr. Netanyahu before a private dinner. “And I think it will only go on to be even greater success in the future.”
That does not mean the two leaders are perfectly in tune, some regional and national security analysts say.
Take Iran. Since the United States joined Israel in its air war aimed at destroying Iran’s nuclear program, Mr. Netanyahu has wanted to seize the moment of Tehran’s weakness to go all the way to regime change. Not so much Mr. Trump, touting the window for a “permanent deal” with Iranian leaders.
And on Gaza, President Trump has for months pressed for a peace deal for the flattened and starving Palestinian enclave based on the same model, which starts with a 60-day Israel-Hamas ceasefire and hostages-prisoners swap. That first step would pave the way to a long-term governance agreement for Gaza, drawing in regional partners. But for largely domestic political reasons, Mr. Netanyahu has preferred to pursue – even intensify – the war.
But others say that despite some flat notes, Mr. Trump has largely demonstrated – as he did again Monday night – that he takes his cue from his support for Israel.
“We have seen some moments, especially early on, that suggested these two leaders maybe weren’t so aligned, but more recently what has been confirmed again is that the U.S. and Israel are in fact working very closely on what Trump sees are U.S. interests and how Netanyahu sees Israel’s interests,” says Annelle Sheline, a former State Department foreign affairs officer who is now Middle East research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft in Washington.
“Unfortunately, I don’t think Trump is ready to pressure Netanyahu in any way on anything,” she says.
No Gaza breakthrough
Mr. Trump had suggested last week that he expected to be able to announce a Gaza deal Monday. But even though both Israel and Hamas reported “positive” steps in talks in Doha over the weekend, there was no breakthrough. Hamas, which seeks to preserve its remaining forces in Gaza, wants some guarantee that a deal will lead to the end of the war. Israel, still holding to its goal of removing Hamas from Gaza, seeks to reserve the right to relaunch fighting as it deems necessary.
Mr. Trump has shifted to saying he expects a ceasefire deal this week.
That could still potentially allow the president and prime minister to celebrate an agreement together, since Mr. Netanyahu plans to remain in Washington until Thursday. After meeting Vice President JD Vance Tuesday morning, he was set to meet with House Speaker Mike Johnson next, and was expected back at the White House later in the afternoon for another meeting with the president.
Support for Mr. Netanyahu and his conduct of the war in Gaza is even more seamless among Republican members of Congress. That strong backing extends to Israel’s risky decision to take out Iran’s nuclear sites and other key locations of the Iranian military.
The Israeli leader is likely to hear music to his ears from some Republicans who think now is the time not for deals with Iran, as Mr. Trump emphasized again Monday, but to proceed to regime change.
In a pre-White-House-dinner commentary, former Trump national security adviser John Bolton, an Iran hawk, said that, unlike Mr. Trump, Mr. Netanyahu understands that just weakening the Iranian regime is not good enough. “Israel seeks regime change in Iran,” he says, initially through “actions to encourage the domestic opposition to move against the ayatollahs.”
Indeed, when asked Monday about seeking regime change in Iran, Mr. Netanyahu said, “I think it’s up to the people of Iran.”
What vision for Gaza?
Mr. Netanyahu revealed another point of misalignment with Mr. Trump in his White House comments Monday over the question of the mass relocation of Gaza’s population of more than 2 million Palestinians.
President Trump “has a brilliant vision, it’s called free choice,” Mr. Netanyahu said on the relocation issue. “If people want to stay they can stay,” he said. Or they could choose to relocate to a different country, he said, adding that Israel and the U.S. were “getting close” to securing agreements with several countries ready to take in displaced Palestinians.
But at the same time in Israel, officials are discussing a plan to forcibly confine the enclave’s population to what Defense Minister Israel Katz calls a “humanitarian city” to be built on the ruins of Rafah.
Mr. Netanyahu said he nominated Trump for a Nobel peace prize based on his vision of securing Middle East peace through the Abraham Accords, which have advanced normalized relations between Israel and some of its Arab neighbors.
The Israeli leader said he expects the accords will serve as a model for further progress in regional relations. Israel’s relations with Syria were reportedly on the dinner discussion menu, while normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia remains the big outstanding prize.
But Mr. Netanyahu also addressed the issue of a future Palestinian state – for many, the ultimate key to a broad regional peace – in terms that seem unlikely to sit well with many Arab leaders, including the Saudis.
Saying the Palestinians had a state, “a Hamas state in Gaza, and look what they did” with it, the Israeli leader said his country would only ever accept a peace based on a new state “in which our security – the sovereign power security – always remains in our hands.”
Acknowledging that others will object that such is “not a complete state, it’s not a state,” he added, “We don’t care. … It’s not going to happen again.”
