For Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, the meeting with President Donald Trump scheduled for Monday will serve as a kind of victory lap after the joint Israeli-US assault last month on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The White House visit — the Prime Minister’s third since Trump returned to office — is likely to add luster to Netanyahu’s laurels, especially with his voters back home, analysts said, as he soon heads into an election year.

But such trips have yielded surprises in the past.

The last time Netanyahu was in the Oval Office, in April, he sat somewhat awkwardly at Trump’s side as the President announced that Washington would be engaging in “direct” talks with Iran in a last-ditch effort to rein in the country’s nuclear programme.

That month, Netanyahu tried to convince Trump that the time was right for a military assault on Iran, but he was swatted down.

This time, Trump is eager to advance a ceasefire deal for Gaza that would see Hamas release hostages and would ultimately end the long war in the Palestinian enclave that was set off by the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. On Sunday, Israel was sending negotiators to Qatar, a mediating country, to try to bridge differences with Hamas.

The US said it was also brokering talks between Israel and Syria aimed at restoring calm along their frontier.

Then there is the unfinished business with Iran, given the varying assessments of how far Israel’s 12-day assault and the US intervention set back Iran’s nuclear weapons programme, and the possibility of renewed negotiations on a nuclear agreement.

“It’s a victory lap with a caveat,” said Alon Pinkas, a political commentator and Israeli former diplomat who advised several Israeli Prime Ministers in the past. “Netanyahu knows the truth — that Iran retains some capabilities,” Pinkas said.

The Prime Minister needs clarifications from Trump, he said, about what would happen if Iran was seen to have resumed its nuclear activities, and whether the US would back Israel if it resumed its attacks on Iran.

In remarks to the Israeli government this month, Netanyahu said he expected meetings with Trump, Vice President JD Vance, secretary of state Marco Rubio, defence secretary Pete Hegseth and others.

“These come in the wake of the great victory that we achieved,” Netanyahu said of Israel’s bombing campaign in Iran. “Taking advantage of the success is no less an important part of achieving the success,” he added.

As an added benefit, the trip allows Netanyahu to postpone his cross-examination in his corruption trial, which Trump has blatantly called to be cancelled. Israeli courts go on summer recess from July 21 until early September.

New York Times News Service