The love-hate relationship between the “president of destruction” and the “prime minister of ruin” will no doubt generate plenty of media noise on Monday at the White House. But unless Donald Trump decides he is ready to bang on the table, raise his voice and tell Benjamin Netanyahu he must end the war here and now, nothing will change.
Trump has already brought ruin on the great democratic superpower, turning it into a country increasingly marked by fascist traits: he wages personal battles against anyone who crosses him, anyone he defines as an enemy. It is not policy, not long-term planning — it is gut reactions combined with the instincts of a New York real estate dealer who views every human event as a subdivision deal. He crushed U.S. trade relations with the world and, like a typical megalomaniac, looks out for himself and his family business. Though he wears no crown, he has adopted the trappings of an all-powerful monarch. He wants an America in his image: shallow, tastelessly gilded, its language vulgar and its conduct guided not by wisdom but by brute force.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with his wife, Sara, talks to US President Donald Trump at the White House
(Photo: Avi Ohayon/GPO)
Netanyahu, too, has brought his country to the edge of darkness: through a looming judicial overhaul, the shattering of the courts and public trust in them, and a war in Gaza he refuses to end. He has turned Israel into a pariah — one from which its best and brightest are emigrating, one that other nations increasingly shun.
Trump is fed up with Netanyahu, but at the same time he admires and even loves him: he envies Netanyahu’s knowledge and manipulative skills, and he enjoys listening to his political analyses — because he cannot analyze or think deeply himself. On Monday, the two will meet to discuss the American plan for ending the war.
Hours before the summit, Trump repeated his firm stance: he will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank or Gaza. “Enough is enough,” he declared. Yet Trump is known for issuing declarations only to reverse them later: Just months ago he told Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky to cede territory to Russia, then last week said Ukraine should indeed keep land that belongs to Russia, even authorizing NATO states to shoot down Russian planes crossing their airspace. Trump’s word holds value only in the moment it is spoken, or until someone else irritates him more.
Orly AzoulayNetanyahu will shower Trump with praise about his leadership and political courage. Trump loves to hear how admired and unparalleled he is. Netanyahu knows how to play to that. But he cannot retreat from Gaza or commit to a Palestinian state — not even in the distant future — because his government would collapse. Everyone involved, from Ramallah to Riyadh, from Jerusalem to Washington, knows there is only one solution: the one now on the Oval Office table, which ultimately leads to the establishment of a Palestinian state. The problem is that no leader has yet shown the courage to raise the flag of normalization on the way to peace.
So the leaders' summit is expected to be one in which Trump and Netanyahu wink at each other like horse thieves. Netanyahu will say he accepts parts of the plan and move on. Trump will say peace is dear to him, but when no progress comes, he will simply turn his back and say he is tired of it. Only Trump has the power to end this accursed war, and for now it does not seem that he truly wants to.