A Meeting on the Most Important of Issues. Netanyahu and Trump's pivotal meeting in a critical moment.

By Michael Oren

Though it will take place in better circumstances than his previous five visits to the White House this year, Netanyahu’s forthcoming meeting at Mar-a-Lago with President Trump might well be the most crucial. On the agenda are issues that are likely to prove pivotal to Israel’s fundamental security.

The issue—certainly for Trump—is Gaza. There, the administration is struggling to advance beyond the first step of its twenty-step peace plan and disarm Hamas. Until it does, no country will contribute troops to the International Stabilization Force (ISF) that will oversee Gaza’s restoration. The danger for Israel is that Trump will seek to deploy the ISF in the 53% of Gaza controlled by the IDF, which will have to withdraw, enabling Hamas to use the foreign soldiers as human shields. The prime minister must convince the president to avert this disaster and permit the IDF to remain in Gaza even if the ISF deploys in its area.

Also in Gaza, Israel’s recent assassination of Hamas’s deputy commander angered White House officials who accused Israel of contradicting the claim that Trump brought peace to the Middle East and Gaza. Such friction has occurred in the past and is certain to recur. In his discussions with the president, Netanyahu must seek to achieve a common definition of what constitutes a violation of the ceasefire and an understanding of how Israel can retaliate for those violations while retaining American support.

Though there appears to be good cooperation between the U.S. and Israel regarding Hezbollah and Lebanon, serious disagreements might emerge surrounding Syria. The country’s leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa was warmly hosted in the White House where he sought a complete Israeli withdrawal from his country. Here, again, the prime minister must seek an understanding with Trump that, in the absence of a signed defense agreement with Syria, there will be no American pressure to withdraw from any part of the security zone.

The greatest challenge for Netanyahu will be reaching a solid agreement with Trump regarding Iran. Should the U.S. enter into renewed nuclear negotiations with Iran, Israel must work to ensure that any agreement reached must truly block Iran’s path to the bomb.

More urgently, the prime minister must secure a green light to act militarily against Iran—alone or together with American forces—in response to the rebuilding of Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal and its nuclear facilities. The agenda of Netanyahu’s visit would be sufficiently challenging without the bitter debate over support for Israel now dividing the president’s MAGA movement. To maintain unity within his own house, Trump may seek to distance Bibi’s.