The President is set to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago on Monday afternoon; discussions are expected to center on rising tensions with Iran and the potential to move to further phases of the Gaza peace plan.
Prior to his meeting with the President, Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with the Secretary of State on Monday morning.
Dr. Dan Diker, head of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, told Digital that President Trump has probably been pressuring Netanyahu since the peace plan was put into effect, pointing out that the U.S. leader has little tolerance for Middle Eastern timelines—ones he says are much longer than those in the U.S. or real estate industry.
“The issue is that Hamas understands it only needs to survive, keep control of western Gaza, and keep attacking Israel—using Gaza’s tunnel network as it has been—to escalate tensions between Israel and the U.S.,” Diker stated.
, he added, will first present Israel’s threat evaluation of Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas as highly serious, and emphasize to the President that Tehran is rebuilding its military capacities. He also is likely to try to convince Trump to let Israel take the actions it thinks are needed to defeat Hamas.
Israeli opposition leader and ex-Prime Minister Yair Lapid told Digital that “We [Israel] should coordinate with President Trump on all key fronts, but our top priority must be the handling of .”
Lapid added, “Israel must disarm Hamas and eliminate the threat from Gaza—and that demands carrying out President Trump’s plan.”
During their meeting, Netanyahu is said to present Trump with plans for a possible strike on Iran. Israel has alerted Washington that a recent Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps missile exercise may be covering up attack preparations—a worry that IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir shared with U.S. Central Command head Adm. Brad Cooper in recent Tel Aviv meetings.
In a Saturday interview covered by the country’s media, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian stated his nation is involved in what he called a “” with the U.S., Israel, and Europe. The Times of Israel quoted him as saying: “In my view, we are in a full-fledged war with the U.S., Israel, and Europe,” Pezeshkian said. “They aim to bring our country to its knees.”
Axios reported that U.S. intelligence judges there is no immediate threat, though Israeli defense officials state their forces are still on high alert.
Per Dr. Meir Javedanfar, a lecturer on Iran and the Middle East at Reichman University, Netanyahu’s plan is likely to propose strikes on .
“Israel will likely hope such a large-scale attack further erodes the legitimacy of Iran’s supreme leader, thus increasing political instability in the country. This is particularly true since Iran’s economy has worsened drastically after the recent war with Israel, and the regime isn’t taking the needed steps to tackle these issues,” he stated.
Israeli Minister for Settlement and National Missions Orit Strook emphasized the need to finish full Gaza demilitarization before proceeding to additional phases of the plan.
She cited Trump’s October address to the Israeli Knesset, pointing out that he emphasized his part in building global support for Gaza’s demilitarization and obtaining a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding the complete dismantling of weapons, tunnels, and terrorist infrastructure.
“Hamas wakes up each day with the goal of harming us,” Strook told Digital. “The IDF will not pull back even one meter, and no rehabilitation framework will be set up until full demilitarization is completed.
“If, heaven forbid, the opposite occurs in the meeting, it will be a failure of the peace plan, a failure for Trump himself—who would be accepting fake demilitarization—and a failure for us. We can’t claim we won this war if Hamas stays armed,” she added.
Still, Trump is expected to reveal the second phase of his Gaza framework soon—even amid Hamas’s of Israel Police Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, who was killed in the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre and whose body was taken to Gaza by Hamas terrorists.
Digital’s Sophia Compton contributed to this report.