Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been welcomed at Blair House in Washington on Sunday evening ahead of his meeting with US President Donald Trump.
“It is a very important meeting,” the prime minister told reporters before takeoff.
“The fact that this would be President Trump’s first meeting with a foreign leader since his inauguration is a testimony to the strength of the Israeli-American alliance. It’s also a testimony to the strength of our personal friendship,” he added.
Netanyahu said he would discuss with the president Israel’s war against Hamas, the release of all the hostages, and the Iranian terror axis.
The prime minister also said he would discuss normalization with Saudi Arabia. “I will look to broaden the circle of peace and achieve a remarkable era of peace through strength,” Netanyahu said.
A spokesperson for Netanyahu, Omer Dostri, told The Jerusalem Post, “We aspire to reach peace, and there’s aspiration on the other side.”
This visit marks Netanyahu’s 14th stay at Blair House, more than any foreign leader since it was built in the 19th century.
Normalization with Saudi Arabia
Dostri agreed that normalization faces more challenges now than it did before October 7 since Saudi Arabia has demanded an end to the war as a prerequisite for any talk on normalization.
“If such a process would have taken place without a war in Gaza, from the Saudis’ perspective, it would have been more comfortable,” Dostri explained to the Post, adding, “But we have not completed our goals in Gaza.”
Were Israel to insist on meeting its war goals in the enclave, this could actually advance normalization, he said. “We must remember: Here in the region, ‘the strongest survive,’ and when countries see Israel annihilating its enemies – it brings normalization closer.”
There exists a Saudi demand that Israel present a path that would result in a Palestinian state. Dostri said Jerusalem views the Palestinian Authority, largely seen as the body that would manage such a state, as “hostile.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Nentanyahu greeting US officials in Washington, DC.
He said Israel and the PA cooperate on security-related issues, but “Hamas wants to destroy Israel using military means, while the PA wants to do it using legal means, such as the ICC [International Criminal Court]. There are many things that the Palestinian Authority needs to improve in order for us to see them as a ‘legitimate entity.’”
One of the options that will be discussed between Trump and Netanyahu will be to extend the current 42-day first phase of the hostage deal talks, in which 33 hostages, some confirmed to be deceased, are expected to be released.
The idea is to continue the ceasefire while Hamas releases more hostages without discussing Hamas’s demand for a full stop to the war – a demand opposed by Israel.
Netanyahu is expected to meet Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, to discuss the negotiations on phase 2 of the deal on Monday, a day before meeting Trump.
A diplomatic source told the Post that Witkoff is set to take an active role in the negotiations, as “Witkoff and the Trump administration see themselves as active negotiators,” in contrast to the Biden administration, which monitored and backed the negotiations but ultimately didn’t bring them to fruition, the source explained.
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