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Trump and Netanyahu Meet in Washington: A Shifting U.S.-Israel Dynamic?

posted on: Feb 5, 2025

Photo: C-Span

By: Ghassan Rubeiz / Arab America Contributing Writer

Pro-Trump Arab groups who helped him win the elections must be in a state of shock this week. On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Donald Trump at the White House. The meeting focused on the fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire, brokered under pressure from Trump, with Iran also on the agenda.

The domestic political scene has changed significantly since Netanyahu’s previous visit to the US last summer. Netanyahu now faces a US president backed by both legislative chambers who envisions himself as an anti-Roosevelt change agent. However, Trump remains disconnected from the deep and complicated history of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The ceasefire deal, structured in three six-week phases, is set to unfold over four months. In theory, it will secure the release of about a hundred Israeli hostages, free several thousand Palestinian prisoners, end the Gaza war, and ensure the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Palestinian enclave. During the first phase, approximately one-third of the hostages are expected to be freed. So far, implementation remains on schedule.

However, the second phase contains a fundamental contradiction: Israel insists Hamas must be eliminated entirely through continued fighting. At the same time, Palestinians remain committed to resisting what they consider an illegal occupation by any means necessary. Both sides have effectively signed an incomplete and aspirational conflict resolution agreement. The negotiation deadlock is expected to reach its climax during the second phase.

Although the two leaders don’t see eye to eye, Trump has recently softened his position. He has developed an unprecedented pro-Zionist stance on resolving the Gaza crisis. In a press conference with Netanyahu, Trump asserted that to save Gaza’s people from their unlivable post-war conditions, they should be transferred across the border to Egypt and Jordan. He claimed they would not want to return to Gaza once relocated to a “much better place.” This controversial proposal, though legally and morally questionable, pleased Netanyahu—not because it is feasible, but because it represents a fundamental shift in US policy toward the Arab-Israeli conflict, aligning with the extreme Israeli right perspective.

Trump appears to overlook several critical factors: Palestinians’ unwillingness to leave their land even under dire conditions, the Geneva Convention’s prohibition against displacing an occupied population of 2.3 million to another country, and the Arab world’s unified opposition to such ethnic cleansing proposals. His approach suggests a significant disconnect from contemporary international norms of justice.

Before Trump’s shocking proposal (which Netanyahu euphemistically calls “outside the box thinking”), hope existed that negotiations could enable the release of remaining hostages and prisoners over the coming weeks. Such a breakthrough would facilitate the IDF’s withdrawal from Gaza and potentially end the war permanently, allowing the rebuilding of an uninhabitable area. These prospects now appear dimmer.

After 15 months of fighting and tremendous loss of life, Israel maintains its position that the war cannot end without eliminating Hamas’s presence in Gaza. Yet the challenge extends beyond Hamas; Israelis appear reluctant to relinquish control of Gaza, having developed a sense of entitlement to the entire land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

While Gaza dominated the agenda, Iran remained Netanyahu’s paramount concern. The Israeli leader has thus far failed to convince Washington that devastating Iran’s nuclear facilities offers the best way to paralyze Tehran politically. During this visit, the two leaders reached a compromise on Iran: the US would tighten sanctions on Tehran to stop its pursuit of nuclear weapons, and if Iran complies, Israel would refrain from attacking its nuclear sites.

Theoretically, Netanyahu’s insistence on continuing the war conflicts with Trump’s publicly declared intention to bring peace to the Middle East. Yet any tension between the two leaders on strategy remained absent from this meeting. Trump’s vision of transforming Gaza from a “demolition site” to a “Middle East Riviera” appears to have satisfied him for now.

Trump may offer Saudi Arabia assurances of restored stability in Gaza and the West Bank through an expanded Abraham Accords framework, wherein the Arab Gulf States could play a significant role in reconstruction and raise Palestinian hopes through concrete steps toward freedom. However, Netanyahu appears unwilling to trade Gaza and the West Bank for regional peace. He also fears a post-war election that could end his political career. Meanwhile, Trump’s approach to peacemaking likely embarrasses the Saudis, whose support remains crucial to the Abraham Accords’ success.

Without ending Israeli occupation, any effective curbing of Hamas will remain challenging. The ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories continues to be a determinative factor in the conflict. The absence of a viable path to Palestinian self-determination fuels tensions and provides groups like Hamas with a rallying cry. Addressing the occupation would tackle the root cause of the conflict and create possibilities for lasting peace.

While Trump may help stop the war in Gaza, the road to permanent peace will require new leadership—in Israel, among Palestinians, and in the United States.

Ghassan Rubeiz is the former Middle East Secretary of the World Council of Churches. Earlier, he taught psychology and social work in his country of birth, Lebanon, and later in the United States, where he currently lives. For the past twenty years, he has contributed to political commentary and delivered occasional public talks on peace, justice, and interfaith subjects. You can reach him at rubeizg@gmail.com

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Arab America. The reproduction of this article is permissible with proper credit to Arab America and the author.

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