CNN: Netanyahu’s Meeting with Trump might Not Go to Script

By Staff, Agencies 

For years, “Israeli” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trips to meet US President Donald Trump in Washington followed a choreographed script: a red carpet, a warm handshake, and shared messages about the closeness of the Israel-US alliance.

However. According to CNN, the relationship has markedly shifted since the two last met five months ago. 

“This is Netanyahu’s seventh visit to the US since Trump returned to power - more than any other world leader. This time, though, he arrives in Washington as a leader facing reelection, trying to steady a relationship that has grown visibly strained,” the outlet mentioned.

Netanyahu has been working to secure an invitation to the White House for several weeks, according to a US official and an “Israeli” source, to discuss progress in the Iran war and warn Trump against diplomatic concessions.

Trump had been resistant to meeting, and some White House officials have been frustrated at what they regarded as “Israeli” attempts to secure a meeting through media leaks — to “will a meeting into existence,” the US official said. This week’s funeral of US Sen. Lindsey Graham provided an opportunity for a sit-down, even though it will be secondary to the larger event.

When both Bibi and Trump last met, in February, they laid the groundwork for what became a joint military aggression against Iran. The opening strikes of the war became a showcase of unprecedented military coordination, which Netanyahu and Trump both eagerly promoted and praised. But as the war dragged on, failing to achieve the overly optimistic goal of toppling the Iranian regime, the gap between them became clear: Netanyahu wanted to keep pressing – Trump wanted an exit.

“In the lead-up to the war, Trump had been convinced by the prime minister and others that the conflict would be contained and last a matter of weeks. Several months later, his anger at the current situation — an uneasy and deadly stalemate — has led to expletive-filled private meetings and fury at the regime in Tehran for not folding in the way he once expected,” according to a US official.

“Netanyahu plans to present Trump with fresh intelligence on the state of Iran’s nuclear and military rebuilding,” an “Israeli” source said, though he said “Israel” assesses “Trump has little interest in resuming a full fight, at least before America’s elections in November.”

“Trump is acutely aware of the political pressures Netanyahu faces ahead of ‘Israel’s’ national election in October,” according to officials, and knows his support for the prime minister could be critical. Aware of that leverage, Trump has selectively shown support, including last week when he said Netanyahu would not be arrested if he came to the United States after New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s initial refusal to roll back a campaign pledge to do so.

Trump has not blamed Netanyahu for the predicament, at least in public. But he has called him “crazy” and “difficult” for continuing a bombing campaign inside Lebanon that threatened a ceasefire. And he has excoriated him over the telephone for diverging from Trump’s war aims.
That divergence of aims extends beyond Iran.

As Trump pushed Netanyahu to stop fighting against Lebanon, Lebanon became another point of friction. In one phone call in early-June reported by Axios, he told Netanyahu, “Everybody hates you now - everybody hates ‘Israel’ because of this.”

In addition to longstanding regional conflicts, two more issues emerged in recent weeks: Trump’s potential plans to sell advanced stealth F-35 fighter jets to Turkey and the US-Saudi civil nuclear agreement. 
Asked on Monday about the possible fighter jet sales to Turkey and Netanyahu’s opposition to such a deal, Trump replied that “nobody” dictates the sales but him, calling Turkey a “tremendous ally.”
Ahead of his departure Monday, Netanyahu said he plans to discuss “all the issues on the agenda, first and foremost, Iran. Naturally, our goal is to safeguard our security and also to expand the circle of peace around us.”