During the unprecedented sixth face-to-face meeting over the past year between U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in South Florida on Monday, the two men were careful to present a closely united front and showcased their continued close cooperation and personal friendship. At the same time, they attempted to sidestep and minimize any policy disagreements held discreetly between them on a broad range of regional issues of war and peace, beginning with the delays in the implementation of the second phase of Trump’s ambitious United Nations Security Council-approved 20-point Gaza ceasefire plan.
Their most immediate problem is the defiant refusal by Hamas’ new leaders to disarm their fighters and cede their current military control over almost half of the Gaza Strip, to which they had agreed when they accepted Trump’s peace plan on October 9. The first phase of Trump’s Gaza peace plan, which was supposed to have been completely implemented by the return of all of the hostages, living and dead, that Hamas took during the October 7 attack within 72 hours of the agreement, has dragged on for nearly three months. Phase one is still incomplete because of Hamas’ failure to return the dead body of the last Israeli citizen being held hostage in Gaza, 24-year-old Israeli Police Sargent Ron Gvili. He was killed, and his body was kidnapped while Gvili was trying to defend the entrance to Kibbutz Alumim near the Gaza border from an invasion by waves of Hamas fighters during the October 7, 2023, attack.
Netanyahu met with Gvili’s parents immediately after landing in the U.S. on Sunday, and reassured them that “every effort is being made to return their heroic son [to Israel] for a Jewish burial.” Trump also told reporters at Mar-a-Lago Monday that, “We’re doing everything we can to get his [Gvili’s] body back.” However, Trump also made it clear that he does not want the start of phase two of his Gaza peace plan to be delayed until the body is returned.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty also said that there was no reason to delay the start of phase two of the ceasefire agreement any further, because “intensive efforts” are still being made in good faith to locate and recover Gvili’s body from the rubble on the ground in Gaza.
There have also been delays in moving forward with the other elements of Trump’s peace plan, including the creation of an International Stabilization Force to oversee the disarmament of Hamas, and the transfer of temporary civilian control over Gaza to a transitional government consisting of a technocratic, apolitical committee of qualified Palestinian experts. This transitional government was to implement the other elements of the ceasefire agreement under the supervision of a Board of Peace, chaired personally by President Trump.
Ideally, Trump’s ceasefire plan would lead towards a broader peace agreement and cooperation between Israel and its pro-Western Arab and Islamic regional neighbors, and the peaceful resolution of the historic Israeli-Arab conflict through the expansion of the Abraham Accords, and a far-reaching reform of the Palestinian Authority, including the replacement of its notoriously corrupt current leadership.
The high cost of belaying phase 2 of Trump’s peace plan
But as the implementation of those elements of the Trump peace plan has stalled, it has permitted the armed remnants of Hamas to consolidate their control over nearly half of Gaza, from which the IDF has withdrawn. Its new leaders have asserted their determination to continue governing that area while re-arming in order to launch new October 7-style attacks in a continuing effort to destroy Israel.
Meanwhile, the absence of further progress toward the full implementation of Trump’s Gaza peace plan has led to a range of policy disagreements between Trump and Netanyahu over such issues as the precise mission, the composition and rules of engagement for the International Stabilization Force, establishing international funding sources, a master plan, and a timetable for the massive Gaza reconstruction project.
Trump and Netanyahu have also been trying to formulate an agreement on a joint U.S.-Israeli response to a range of ongoing security threats in the region, despite the series of impressive Israeli military victories over the past year in Gaza and Lebanon, the successful joint air attacks on Iran, and the IDF’s establishment of key military outposts in the demilitarized zone inside Syria and observation posts on the northern side of Har Hermon.
The current security challenges include the failure of the Lebanese army to complete the disarmament of Hezbollah, especially in southern Lebanon, in accordance with the ceasefire agreement that ended the successful IDF attack on Hezbollah in late 2024 and enabled the Israeli civilian population to return safely to their abandoned homes along the Lebanese border.
Absorbing the most crucial lesson of the October 7 attack
But Israel’s political and military leaders seem to have absorbed the main lesson from the shocking Hamas October 7 attack, that Israel cannot afford to ignore the efforts by their weakened enemies in the region to re-arm themselves after losing their latest military skirmish with Israel.
President Trump also understands the necessity of enforcing a zero-tolerance policy against still-armed Hamas fighters. When asked by reporters at Mar-a-Lago how quickly his peace plan would advance to its second stage, Trump replied, “As quickly as we can, but [first] there has to be a disarmament. We have to disarm Hamas.”
According to a Wall Street Journal editorial, the solution to Hamas’ resistance to the demand that it be disarmed is not to give up on Trump’s peace plan, but rather to apply as much pressure as needed to force Hamas to adhere to it. That means giving Israel the full freedom of military action “short of war, of the kind it practices from time to time in the West Bank, to prevent Hamas from comfortably reconstituting its forces.”
After meeting with Netanyahu for several hours at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on Monday afternoon, Trump told a news conference that Israel had “lived up to the [Gaza peace plan] plan 100 percent.”
Trump also publicly signaled his willingness in principle to engage in another joint air attack with Israel on Iran to stop it from rebuilding its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons capabilities. “Speaking of Iran, I hope they’re not trying to build up again,” Trump said during the day’s second news conference. “Because if they are, we’re going to have no choice but to very quickly eradicate that buildup.”
Strong Israeli responses to remaining threats in Lebanon and Syria
In pursuing its more aggressive zero-tolerance strategy against any military buildup by its enemies, the IDF has been attacking Hezbollah military infrastructure targets in southern Lebanon that were being rebuilt with financial assistance from Iran. On November 23, the IDF launched a precision air strike on Beirut, which killed Hezbollah’s most senior surviving military leader, who had been coordinating Hezbollah’s efforts to re-arm itself in order to renew its attacks on Israel.
When Trump was asked by reporters at Mar-a-Lago on Monday if Israel should continue its attacks on Hezbollah in light of its continued refusal to disarm, Trump said ambiguously: “We’re going to see about that. The Lebanese government is at a little bit of a disadvantage with Hezbollah,” Trump continued, but he also conceded that Hezbollah “has been behaving badly” by refusing to allow itself to be disarmed by the Lebanese army under the terms of the 2024 ceasefire agreement to which it agreed.
Trump and Netanyahu also seem to disagree over how to respond to the lingering security threats to Israel and its Druze allies in the southern Syria border areas from Islamic terrorist groups affiliated with the new Syrian government, as well as the remaining elements of ISIS, which recently staged a fatal attack on the small American anti-terrorism military force still stationed in Syria.
Dealing with the growing problem from Turkey
Netanyahu is also opposed to Trump’s desire to give a significant role in the stabilization and reconstruction of Gaza to Turkey, because it is under the rule of Israel’s outspoken Islamic enemy, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has been a leading supporter of the Palestinian national cause and Hamas. The Turkish president has repeatedly issued fiery denunciations of Israel over its conduct of the war against Hamas in Gaza, as well as the Israeli blockade of all potentially strategic military shipments to Gaza before the October 7 attack.
But Trump indicated a desire to enable Turkey to contribute its troops to the International Stabilization Force, despite Netanyahu’s opposition due to Erdogan’s history of support for Hamas. Trump said, “We’ll be talking about it, and if it’s good, I think that’s good,” while Netanyahu maintained a respectful silence.
Turkey is also the leading regional military and political sponsor of the new Syrian government, which replaced the Bashar Assad regime following its collapse in late 2024. Netanyahu has also urged President Trump to deny Turkey’s renewed request to buy America’s advanced F-35 stealth warplanes for fear that they might someday be used in a Turkish attack on Israel, which relies heavily on its own version of the F-35 to maintain its technological military edge over its enemies. Last week, in a thinly veiled reference to Turkey’s request for the F-35s, Netanyahu said that Israel will “prevent whoever must be prevented from receiving these instruments.”
But when Trump was asked by reporters Monday at Mar-a-Lago about Turkey’s F-35 request, Trump called Erdogan “a very good friend,” and insisted that “We’re not going to have a problem” between Israel and Turkey because of their dispute over the warplanes.
Turkey had been among the first of America’s NATO allies scheduled to receive shipments of the F-35s. But in 2019, the sale of the planes was cancelled because Turkey went forward with the purchase of the Russian-made S-400 air defense system over objections from the first Trump administration, which feared that Turkey would then be able to expose any vulnerabilities of the F-35 to the S-400 system.
Trump added that Netanyahu “respects” Erdogan and that “he’s done a fantastic job” in assisting in the overthrow of Bashar Assad’s pro-Iranian Syrian regime and claimed that Netanyahu agreed with that assertion. But in the past, Netanyahu sought to claim some of the credit for initiating the “historic” process, which resulted in the fall of Assad’s regime.
Nevertheless, Trump said, in an apparent effort to minimize the sharp differences between the two American allies in the region, “I’m with him [Erdogan] all the way, [and] I’m with Bibi all the way.”
Trying to reach an “understanding” with Trump on Syria
With regard to Israeli relations with the new Syrian government in Damascus, the U.S. has been mediating talks between the two for months in an effort to reach mutually acceptable security arrangements. Over the past year, Israel has intervened militarily several times to protect pro-Israeli Druze communities in southern Syria, which came under attack from local Islamic militias with reported ties to the new Syrian President, Ahmed al-Sharaa, who is a former Islamic jihadist commander. In response, President Trump publicly warned Israel against doing anything “that will interfere with Syria’s evolution into a prosperous state.”
However, Trump claimed Monday that Israel and the U.S. “do have an understanding on Syria,” and heaped praise on al-Sharaa, whom Trump said “has been with us all the way.”
“I’m sure that Israel and him will get along,” Trump added. “I will try to make it so that they do get along.”
In response, Netanyahu said that Israel desires “to have a peaceful border with Syria. We also want to secure our Druze friends” in Syria living near the Israeli border, as well as the Christian communities that are under attack in Syria and throughout the Middle East from religiously motivated attacks by Islamic forces.
Responding to Iran’s crash program to rearm itself
Netanyahu and Trump are both deeply concerned by Iran’s widely reported crash efforts to rebuild its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs, which were largely destroyed during the 12 days of joint U.S. and Israeli air attacks in July.
In his initial public comments welcoming Netanyahu to Mar-a-Lago, Trump said that he would support another Israeli attack on Iran, “If [they] will continue with the [development of ballistic] missiles — yes. [And if they continue with] the [production of] nuclear [weapons]. . . One will be yes, absolutely. The other, we’ll do it immediately,” Trump declared.
Trump also said that he and Netanyahu were “extremely victorious” during the 12-day air war in June, during which U.S. B-2 stealth bombers destroyed three of Iran’s underground nuclear facilities by dropping 12 GBU-57A/B “bunker buster” deep penetrating bombs, each of them weighing 15 tons. “Now I hear that Iran is trying to build up again, and if they are, we’re going to have to knock them down,” Trump said, before adding that “hopefully that’s not happening.”
Trump is not yet ready to give up on negotiation with Iran
But while Netanyahu has been urging Trump to launch another campaign of joint air strikes to destroy the new weapons initiatives before Iran can fully rebuild its decimated air defenses, Trump has been publicly calling upon Iran’s leaders to engage in diplomatic talks to reach a new agreement to limit its missile and nuclear programs voluntarily, making another attack unnecessary.
Trump claimed that Iran “wants to make a deal, but sometimes that doesn’t happen,” and said that this was the case before the joint June air attacks when Iran’s leaders ignored a public ultimatum that Trump had issued. “They [Iran’s leaders] decided not to make the deal. [But later] they wished they [had] made that deal,” Trump added
Trump also said Monday that he is not ready to publicly entertain the idea of trying to overthrow Iran’s Islamic leadership, which has been publicly suggested by some Israeli officials.
“They’ve got a lot of problems in Iran. They have tremendous inflation. Their economy is bust… and their people aren’t happy,” Trump said. “Every time they have a rioter, or someone forms a group, little or big, [the regime] starts shooting people.” But Trump also made it clear that he is not yet ready to order an American intervention on behalf of the domestic opponents of the Islamic regime.
Asked by reporters just how close Israel and the U.S. are to launching another series of attacks on Iran, Trump responds, “I don’t want to say that, but Iran may be behaving badly. It hasn’t been confirmed, but if it’s confirmed, they know the consequences will be very powerful.”
Trump and Bibi agree to disagree about the West Bank and the PA
The Trump administration has expressed its strong opposition to proposals by Netanyahu’s right-wing Israeli government coalition allies, Finance Minister and Religious Zionism party leader Bezalel Smotrich, and National Security Minister and Otzma Yehudit party leader Itamar Ben Gvir, for Israel to annex the Jewish-populated areas of the West Bank, in an aggressive effort to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state. The Trump administration has also expressed deepening concerns over a recent surge in reported attacks by right-wing Israeli activists living in the West Bank on local Arabs and their property, usually in retaliation for the ongoing campaign of terrorist attacks on Israelis.
During their public comments, when Trump was asked about the reported Israeli attacks on West Bank Arabs, the American president said: “We have had a big discussion for a long time on the West Bank, and I wouldn’t say we agree on the West Bank one hundred percent.” But then Trump added that he was confident that he and Netanyahu would “come to a conclusive [agreement] on [Israel’s] West Bank [policies].”
The U.S. has also reportedly been pushing the Israeli government to release several billion dollars in tax revenues that it collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA) under the terms of the Oslo peace accords because of the PA’s stubborn refusal to end its “pay for slay” payments to Palestinian terrorists incarcerated in Israeli prisons and their family members. As a result of these withheld Israeli payments, the finances of the PA government are once again on the brink of bankruptcy, even though the Trump administration still hopes that a reformed PA will eventually be able to play a positive role in a post-war Hamas-free Gaza government.
But when asked by reporters Monday to explain what the disagreement with Israel over the future role of the PA is about, Trump declined to do so, while insisting that Netanyahu will ultimately “do the right thing” with regard to the PA.
On the other hand, in their public statements on Monday, Trump and Netanyahu both went out of their way to highlight the strength of their close working relationship and mutual admiration, despite some passing references by Trump to his policy differences with Netanyahu. Trump also expressed his grudging admiration for the Israeli leader’s stubborn resistance to making important policy concessions under intense pressure.
Failed media attempts to break up the Trump-Netanyahu partnership
Both American and Israeli mainstream media news reporters covering the Mar-a-Lago meeting seemed to be disappointed that there were no obvious signs of widely reported strains in the personal relationship between Trump and Netanyahu, or any insurmountable policy differences over a long list of potential issues. These include how long Israel is prepared to wait before moving on its own to disarm Hamas, and what role, if any, that Turkey should be given in the next stages of the Trump peace plan.
But instead of delving into the many complexities of the current security situation facing Israel, and the efforts by its enemies to recover from the recent string of Israeli military victories over the past year in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and in the skies over Iran, the reporters seemed to be obsessed in their attempts to promote a narrative in which the alliance of convenience between President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu is being torn apart by conflicting priorities in the national interests of the United States and Israel, and any personal animosities that may be growing between the two strong leaders driven by their personal egos and political goals.
In response, Trump and Netanyahu seem to have developed a mutual understanding that their interests would both be best served by presenting a united front to the rest of the world. During their meetings at Mar-a-Lago, any policy disputes between them were treated as certain to be easily resolved. Any potentially embarrassing or politically controversial questions from reporters were either ignored or sidestepped by both leaders because they have long been the targets of false accusations and politically motivated legal persecution instigated by their enemies, as well as outrageous slanders and merciless, knee-jerk criticisms from the liberal-dominated news media in their respective countries.
A Wall Street Journal editorial noted that, “Much of the [news] media seems to want a ‘split’ between President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. This was all the talk until they joined to strike Iran’s nuclear program in June, and lately we hear it again. But as the two met Monday at Mar-a-Lago. . . no such split was in evidence.
“Asked about the relationship, Mr. Trump answered with common sense. ‘I don’t think it can be better. We just won a big war together,’ he said.”
Trump’s approach to the media at Mar-a-Lago on Monday was to say that his personal relationship with Netanyahu, having met with each other many times before as heads of state since 2017, “has been extraordinary.”
Trump calls Netanyahu a “War Hero”
Trump called Netanyahu a “hero” as the prime minister first arrived at the president’s Mar-a-Lago home on Monday. When he was then asked by reporters whether Israeli President Isaac Herzog would agree to pardon Netanyahu, Trump answered, “I think he will. How do you not? He’s a wartime prime minister. He’s a hero.”
Trump told the Israeli reporter who asked him about Netanyahu’s legal problems that he believes the prime minister is “going to be in good shape.” Trump added that many “people in the world” appreciate Israel’s military victories over the past two years, and that the people of Israel “know it. That’s why they like me, and they actually like him [Netanyahu].”
However, Trump also conceded that Netanyahu has “got more of a little of a love-hate relationship [with the Israeli people] than I do over there. [But] even the haters have a lot of respect” for the prime minister. Trump added. “There’s a lot of jealousy about him.”
Trump also claimed Monday that he had personally spoken with President Herzog, who told him that the pardon that Trump had requested for the criminal charges against Netanyahu for which the prime minister has been on trial in Israel is “on its way. Can’t do better than that, right?” Trump said, as Netanyahu stood alongside him.
But President Herzog’s office was quick to issue a denial, which declared that, “There has been no conversation between President Herzog and President Trump since the pardon request was submitted” in a letter from the American president. The statement from Herzog’s office also said that a Trump aide who had inquired by telephone about the status of the pardon request was told that a decision has yet to be made, and that it will be resolved in accordance with standard procedures.
Netanyahu calls Trump Israel’s best friend in the White House
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Netanyahu found new ways to re-emphasize the claim he made at their meeting three months ago, at which he hailed Donald Trump as the “greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House.”
On Monday, Netanyahu declared that Israel has “never had a friend like President Trump in the White House, it’s not even close. I think you can judge that, not only by the frequency of our meetings, but by the content and the intensity.
“I think Israel is very blessed to have President Trump leading the United States, and I’ll say leading the free world at this time. It’s not only Israel’s great fortune. It’s the world’s great fortune.”
“We have a great relationship,” Trump responded to the praise from the prime minister. “It was a great honor to speak before your leaders” at the Knesset in October, Trump said. “The relationship has been extraordinary, and Bibi’s a strong man. He can be very difficult on occasion, but you need a strong man. If you had a weak man, you wouldn’t have Israel. . . With most other leaders, [Israel] would not exist today. Now they’re stronger than ever,” President Trump declared.
Netanyahu responded in kind to the public praise he received from Trump by announcing that the American president has been chosen to become the first non-citizen to be given the highest civilian honor that the Israeli government can bestow, the prestigious Israel Prize, presented in recognition of Trump’s special contributions to the Jewish people. Trump was offered the honor in a phone call Monday from Israel’s Education Minister, Yoav Kisch, who invited Trump to receive the honor in person at a ceremony in Yerushalayim on the eve of Israel’s Independence Day.
Common goals but different timelines
Dan Diker, president of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, said ahead of Monday’s meeting between Trump and Netanyahu that it was occurring at a “critical moment, where we have this security dilemma blocking Trump’s [peace] program. President Trump is a great friend of Israel. But he is impatient. Netanyahu will need to clear the air. He will need to impress upon the president that Israel and the U.S. are very much aligned in their goals, but the timelines differ.”
For example, as long as Hamas remains in full military control over the parts of Gaza from which the Israeli troops have been withdrawn and refuses to lay down its arms, the IDF will continue to respond aggressively to any Hamas military violations of the ceasefire agreement or perceived threats to the Israeli troops stationed behind the so-called yellow line defining the current area of Gaza under Israeli occupation.
In line with the IDF’s more proactive approach to any emerging terrorist threat, it took the opportunity to kill Raed Saad, who was the second-in-command of Hamas’ remaining military forces, in a precision attack on a car in which he was traveling on Gaza’s coastal road on December 13. Saad, who was reportedly involved in the planning of the Hamas October 7 attack, which started the Gaza war, had been an elusive target who spent much of his time since the war started two years ago deep underground in the vast Hamas network of tunnels. Prime Minister Netanyahu stated that he had personally ordered Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz to carry out the assassination of Saad, even though President Trump reportedly disapproved of the attack, for fear that it would undermine his Gaza ceasefire plan. Trump also told reporters that he was “looking into” whether Israel’s assassination of Saad was a violation of the peace agreement.
Israel must take new risks to avoid another October 7
But these are the kinds of risks that Israeli leaders have learned that they must take to avoid the possibility of a tragic repeat of the October 7-style attack. The Israeli public has also taken this lesson to heart from the shock and grief that it suffered at the hands of Hamas two years ago, due to the overconfidence of Israel’s leaders and their underestimating the determination of Israel’s enemies.
