Netanyahu Heads to Washington as Trump Pushes for Israel-Hamas Cease-Fire

For Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, the meeting with President Trump scheduled for Monday will serve as a kind of victory lap after the joint Israeli-U.S. assault last month on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The White House visit — the prime minister’s third since Mr. Trump returned to office — is likely to add luster to Mr. Netanyahu’s laurels, especially with his voters back home, analysts said, as he soon heads into an election year.

But such trips have yielded surprises in the past.

The last time Mr. Netanyahu was in the Oval Office, in April, he sat somewhat awkwardly at Mr. Trump’s side as the president announced that Washington would be engaging in “direct” talks with Iran in a last-ditch effort to rein in the country’s nuclear program. That month, Mr. Netanyahu tried to convince Mr. Trump that the time was right for a military assault on Iran, but he was swatted down.

This time, Mr. Trump is eager to advance a cease-fire deal for Gaza that would see Hamas release hostages and would ultimately end the long war in the Palestinian enclave that was set off by the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. On Sunday, Israel sent negotiators to Qatar, a mediating country, to try to bridge differences with Hamas.

The United States said it was also brokering talks between Israel and Syria aimed at restoring calm along their frontier.

Then there is the unfinished business with Iran, given the varying assessments of how far Israel’s 12-day assault and the U.S. intervention set back Iran’s nuclear weapons program, and the possibility of renewed negotiations on a nuclear agreement.

“It’s a victory lap with a caveat,” said Alon Pinkas, a political commentator and Israeli former diplomat who advised several Israeli prime ministers in the past.

“Netanyahu knows the truth — that Iran retains some capabilities,” Mr. Pinkas said. The prime minister needs clarifications from Mr. Trump, he said, about what would happen if Iran was seen to have resumed its nuclear activities, and whether the United States would back Israel if it resumed its attacks on Iran.

In remarks before boarding his plane to Washington on Sunday, Mr. Netanyahu said he would be meeting all the senior members of the administration and members of Congress from both sides of the aisle.

He said he would first thank Mr. Trump for his support for Israel. “Our joint mobilization brought us a great victory over our joint enemy, Iran,” he said, adding that he was committed to “preserving the achievement.”

As an added benefit, the trip allows Mr. Netanyahu to postpone his cross-examination in his corruption trial, which Mr. Trump has blatantly called to be canceled. Israeli courts go on summer recess from July 21 until early September.

After securing Mr. Trump’s full backing for the war in Iran, Mr. Netanyahu is now somewhat beholden to his chief ally. The terms of that cease-fire or how it is supposed to be enforced are generally unknown, said Shira Efron, the director of research at Israel Policy Forum, a New York-based research group.

Regarding the efforts for a Gaza cease-fire, she said, “We’ve been here before,” but now there were reasons for optimism.

For one thing, Mr. Trump has called for one. “MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!!,” he wrote on social media a week ago. He says he wants that war to end, too.

Hard-liners in Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition oppose an end to the war and want Israel to remain in control of Gaza.

But Mr. Netanyahu could probably sell them an initial, temporary cease-fire, Ms. Efron said, adding, “I think we will see a full cease-fire disguised as a partial agreement.”

In Israel, opposition to the war in Gaza has been growing. Many people are asking what the military is still doing there, with more than 20 soldiers killed in the past month, according to the military. More than 55,000 Palestinians have been killed so far, according to Gaza health officials whose casualty figures do not distinguish between combatants and civilians. About 1,200 people were killed in the October 2023 attack, and of the 251 people taken hostage, 50 remain in Gaza, about 20 of them alive, according to the Israeli authorities.

The proposed truce calls for a 60-day pause in fighting during which the sides would negotiate terms for a permanent cease-fire. Hamas insists that any deal must lead to a full and lasting cessation of hostilities but has so far rejected Mr. Netanyahu’s terms for ending the war.

Many Israelis, including ministers in Mr. Netanyahu’s government, still cling to a brazen vision for Gaza that Mr. Trump floated two Netanyahu visits ago, in February. At the time, the president declared that the United States should seize control of the Palestinian coastal enclave, permanently displace the entire population of two million people and turn the devastated strip into “the Riviera of the Middle East.” Experts said the proposal would be a severe violation of international law.

By the time Mr. Netanyahu came for his next White House visit, in April, Mr. Trump appeared to have moved on.

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