This coming Monday, all eyes will be on President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu as the latter comes to Washington for what will be their third meeting this year. This makes Netanyahu the world leader who has most visited Trump in the White House since the start of 2025.
Here are some things to look for.
Both leaders will take and share credit publicly, praising one another for the recent achievements in eliminating the Iranian nuclear threat, literally if not figuratively spiking the ball in the end zone. Will there be public declarations of deterring Iran and other bad actors, announcements of additional support for Israel to heighten its preparedness? Privately, it’s reasonable to imagine they will discuss intelligence assessments of actual accomplishments, additional threats, and the need for regime change in Iran to actually bring peace, not just for Israel and the US, but also for the Iranian people, albeit while not publicly stating this.
As for the highly enriched uranium that created the urgency for this attack, enough to produce as much as ten nuclear weapons, the question is what happened to it. If it was in Fordow, one would think that radioactive fallout would be an issue. Could it have been smuggled out of Iran to North Korea, China, or Russia? Could it have been moved, protected, turned into dirty bombs, to be smuggled across borders and threaten Israel, the US, and the rest of the world?
There are indications that high on Trump’s agenda will at least be a push to end the war in Gaza, maybe even some declaration about how that is happening, with Netanyahu smiling at the president’s side. Will such remarks be coordinated or a surprise? Ending the war meaningfully, however, requires more than Israel’s withdrawal of its troops. It requires the complete eradication of Hamas in Gaza, and the release of the remaining 50 hostages. Talk of a 60-day ceasefire in exchange for a handful of hostages will embolden Hamas and not achieve either of these goals. It will not bring peace. Netanuahu will surely remind Trump that Hamas’ terrorist infrastructure can be defeated, but its ideology (and influence elsewhere) remain alive and “well.”
In this context, there will likely be public declarations about a Gazan future free of Hamas, but will there be any other long term realistic plan proposed? Will Hamas get the memo?
After celebrating the recent joint success in eliminating Iran’s nuclear threat, it’s hard to imagine a 180-degree pivot with Trump strong-arming Netanyahu (particularly as a surprise) to agree to an end of the war in Gaza without achieving the war’s goals. But it’s also hard to imagine Netanyahu not bowing to a degree of pressure by Trump, in order to maintain the relationship. Surely Netanyahu is not coming to Washington for a public dressing down as happened with Ukrainian President Zelensky.
Yet peacemaker Trump, seeking and believing that even the most intractable issues can be overcome through a deal, could possibly place himself as guarantor for Hamas not having control in a restructured Gaza. Would that mean US control, even boots on the ground, as he hinted in previous statements? Could additional brazen statements be made, even if less than practical but to cajole the Arab world into a broader deal as well?
It could be risky for Trump because Hamas is not looking for a deal, but to survive another day, to achieve its goal of annihilating Israel. That won’t change. Yet such an offer, if it could even happen could take pressure off Netanyahu at home, claiming success for bringing the hostages home, and buffer challenges to his premiership from within his own coalition.
A Trump cherry on top could be suggesting if not outright stating some form of support for Israeli annexation of Judea and Samaria, the “West Bank,” giving the Palestinian Authority 60 days as he did with Iran, to make a deal.
This takes place in the context of Netanyahu’s popularity at home receiving a bump due to the Iran war, but still polls showing him unable to win a governing majority if elections were today. He remains on trial for serious crimes, still having yet to take responsibility for the failures that led up to the October 7 Hamas attack and massacre, parliamentary challenges within his coalition and the opposition and, at best, elections in the fall of 2026, if not sooner. He will want to paint himself as a hero. Trump may become his biggest public cheerleader.
Speculations or an announcement of other countries joining the Abraham Accords would be a coup. Rumors are flying about Syria and Lebanon being next. Of course this is an exciting possibility, but with a recent assassination attempt on the current Syrian president, a former leader of Al-Qaeda and Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) by ISIS, and Lebanon still under the heals of Hezbollah, it’s hard to imagine a stable peace. Even “normalization” sounds like a longshot.
Perhaps to break the ice, Trump will announce an international conference, “Abraham’s Tent” bringing together regional leaders who are still officially at war with Israel. But this time, such a conference would include Israel, maybe even in Jerusalem, hosted by President Trump himself.
All of this could be Act II of the remarkable campaign of disinformation, masterfully choreographed between Trump and Netanyahu, setting up something even bigger.
Buckle up. Whatever will be, it won’t be boring.
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