Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Washington on Sunday for a visit to the White House, in a stay which is planned through Tuesday. The two leaders are meeting Monday afternoon.
He will be the first foreign leader to meet President Trump in-person in an effort to negotiate a deal to remove Trump's tariffs, which for Israel is a 17% rate, the result of a significant US bilateral trade deficit.
"Upon his arrival in Washington with his wife, Sara Netanyahu, the premier headed from the airport to Blair House in a convoy, where he met with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer," Israeli media wrote.
And Axios noted just ahead of the the trip that Israel tried to "avoid the tariffs Trump imposed on nearly every country in the world by announcing it would preemptively lift all tariffs on U.S. products. It didn't work."
This visit, which is Netanyahu's second to the White House since Trump took office (the first was in early February), was by all accounts rather hastily put together, and also high on the agenda will be the Gaza crisis. Currently there are still 59 hostages still in Hamas and Islamic Jihad captivity - with many feared deceased.
Israel has controversially expanded the war, and now has Rafah surrounded once again and has ordered an evacuation of the civilian population. Hundreds of thousands have fled the southern Gaza city, also as basic necessities of life for the Palestinian population are running out.
Netanyahu’s office has has further indicated that "Israel-Turkey relations, the Iranian threat and confronting the International Criminal Court" will be on the agenda.
Trump may emerge from the meeting declaring that Israel is an example of how his tariff policy is working - that foreign capitals will come scrambling to negotiate.
One interesting aspect to Netanyahu's travels is the impact the International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant is having on his itinerary. He's still not able to visit most of the European continent, and last week's Hungary trip was the first, after Budapest declared it would not arrest him or cooperate with the ICC.
Times of Israel pointed out that "The Wing of Zion state plane took a flight path that increased the journey from Budapest to Washington by some 400 kilometers in order to avoid flying over countries seen as likely to enforce the arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court should the plane be forced to make an emergency landing."
Isn't it interesting that Israel had huge tariffs on American goods, despite the billions in money we send them, and nobody who is currently outraged at Trump ever said anything about this nonsense? pic.twitter.com/iNmDSDuRnF
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) April 7, 2025
"As Israel believes that Ireland, Iceland and the Netherlands would all enforce the ICC warrant, issued for alleged war crimes in Gaza, Wing of Zion instead flew over Croatia, Italy and France," the report added.
Hungary last week declared it is exiting membership in the The Hague-based ICC due to the action against Netanyahu, with PM Viktor Orban decrying that it's a "political tool" of Israel's enemies. The Trump White House is certainly on board with Orban's decision.
