US Politics
Trump officials fear meeting with Netanyahu could go ‘off the rails’ as divide grows between them
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President Donald Trump is set to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday in what is expected to be a tense meeting that could be a step toward ceasefire efforts or “go off the rails,” according to a senior administration official.
Since taking office in January, Trump has largely thrown American support behind Netanyahu while attempting to broker an Israel-Gaza peace deal after Israel has spent nearly two years staging a deadly offensive that the United Nations recently determined to be a genocide.
But the relationship between Trump and Netanyahu has hit several bumps recently, namely after the Israeli leader launched an unsuccessful strike against Hamas officials who were in Qatar for peace talks. That strike reportedly went against the advice of high-ranking Israeli officials, upset Qataris, and deeply angered Trump,Politico reported.
“[Trump] is going to try to get [Netanyahu] to agree to some terms that then they could take back to [Hamas] and finally get something done,” an unnamed administration official told Politico.
However, Trump insiders also warned that the meeting “could also go off the rails.”
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The U.S. president reportedly perceives Netanyahu as losing his grip on power and isolated from the U.S. as well as his own government, an administration official told Politico.
Trump appeared to draw a line in the sand last week when he publicly stated the U.S. would “not allow” Israel to seize the West Bank.
The stakes between the two leaders are higher than ever ahead of Monday’s meeting where Netanyahu will have to decide whether he will accept Trump’s latest plan for peace or publicly break from him.
Trump expressed confidence ahead of the meeting, telling Axios that negotiations to end the war were in the “final stages.”
The U.S. has presented a 21-point plan, shaped by the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and White House envoy Steve Witkoff with assistance from former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair.
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The plan calls for a permanent ceasefire, release of all remaining hostages, no Israeli annexation of the West Bank, a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and a governing mechanism in Gaza that includes an international and Arab board with a Palestinian Authority representative, among other things.
The war between Israel and Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas killed approximately 1,200 people in Israel and took hundreds of others hostage. In response, Israel has launched a brutal two-year-long attack in Gaza, killing more than 66,000 people.
An Israeli official told Axios Sunday that the U.S. and Israel closed some gaps during a lengthy meeting Sunday between the Israeli Prime Minister, Witkoff, and Kusher.
But in an interview with The Sunday Briefing on Fox News, Netanyahu did not confirm whether or not he was accepting the terms of the plan. He said that “it’s not been finalized yet,” but that they are “working on it.”
