A full victory over Hamas terrorism, countering Iran and expanding diplomatic relations with Arab countries. These are the three items at the top of the list Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he will broach in his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump this week in Washington, DC.
“The decisions we made in the war have already changed the face of the Middle East,” Israel’s leader said at the airport before his departure.
“Our decisions and the courage of our soldiers have redrawn the map. But I believe that working closely with President Trump, we can redraw it even further and for the better,” he said.
AP reports Tuesday’s head-to-head meeting at the White House will be Trump’s first with a foreign leader since returning to office.
It comes as U.S. and Arab mediators work to broker the next phase of an agreement to wind down the war in the Gaza Strip and release dozens of terrorist-held hostages as Trump has continued to reiterate his unswerving support of the Jewish State.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called President Donald Trump “the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House.” Indeed, decades of U.S. policy towards Israel has been reversed under Trump. https://t.co/FfYO7Rvejm
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) August 24, 2020
Hamas, which has quickly reasserted its control over Gaza since the ceasefire took hold last month, has said it will not release the hostages slated to go free in the second phase without an end to the war and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces.
For his part Netanyahu has said Israel remains committed to victory over Hamas terror forces and the return of all the hostages captured in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war.
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In a statement released ahead of his departure on Sunday and seen by AP, Netanyahu said they would discuss “victory over Hamas, achieving the release of all our hostages and dealing with the Iranian terror axis in all its components,” referring to Iran’s alliance of terror groups intent on wreaking havoc across the region, including Hamas.
He said that by working together, they could “strengthen security, broaden the circle of peace and achieve a remarkable era of peace through strength.”
Although Netanyahu is officially scheduled to remain in Washington until Thursday, the visit is expected to be extended, and he is now anticipated to depart on Saturday night, after Shabbat.
