After softball visit to Hungary, Netanyahu strikes out in DC meeting with Trump
US president surprises Israeli delegation as he announces Iran talks, refuses to commit to tariff relief, praises Hamas defender Erdogan
WASHINGTON, DC — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was looking forward to a pleasant trip abroad last week before the Passover holiday.
He was heading to Budapest to meet Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a firm, outspoken backer of Israel.
The trip was an opportunity for Netanyahu to thumb his nose at the International Criminal Court and wander freely around a European Union country with no fear of being arrested. The hosts even told Israel that they would announce they were backing out of the ICC during Netanyahu’s trip
The trip would be capped off with a weekend at the Four Seasons with his wife Sara.
There was one thing to take care of before setting off for his long weekend on the Danube. A day before the trip, in order to get ahead of Donald Trump’s upcoming tariffs on trade partners, Netanyahu’s government scrapped all tariffs on imports from the US.
It didn’t work. As Netanyahu was boarding Wing of Zion, Trump unveiled a raft of tariffs, including a 17 percent duty on Israeli products.
But things seemed to fall back into place once Netanyahu touched down in Budapest. Orban received Netanyahu at Buda Castle with imperial pageantry, complete with mustachioed horsemen and rows of marching troops.
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban (L) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are greeted by a military honor guard on April 3, 2025, in Budapest, Hungary.
After Hungary withdrew as promised from the ICC, the two leaders had a celebratory phone call with Trump, who insisted that Netanyahu fly to Washington, ostensibly to put the tariff kerfuffle behind them.
As he had so many times in his long political career, it seemed that Netanyahu had quickly turned a crisis into an opportunity. He would be the first world leader since Trump’s tariff announcement to visit the White House to hammer out an agreement on trade.
Their minds at ease, Netanyahu and his staff enjoyed a Saturday night cruise on the river, ready for another show of unity in the Oval Office.
But the former commando was walking into an ambush.
Strike one: Iran
Trump had spent Monday morning hosting the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the White House. He brought that relaxed energy to the meeting with Netanyahu in the Oval Office, but there were surprises in store.
Sitting next to Netanyahu, Trump announced that senior US officials “at almost the highest level” would be holding direct talks with Iran on Saturday to discuss its nuclear program.
Netanyahu and his aides were evidently taken aback by the development. Plainly, the president had updated Netanyahu in their hourlong meeting before they met the press, and the prime minister recognized that he would have to live with it. Thus, Netanyahu, who spoke before Trump in the Oval Office when we reporters were called in, preemptively noted that it would be “a good thing” if diplomacy could fully stop Iran’s nuclear weapons program, but that it had to be stopped one way or another. Then the US president made his “direct talks” reveal.
Presumably this was the real reason Trump was so adamant that Netanyahu make a sudden trip to Washington this week.
Strike two: Tariffs
As for the tariffs, Netanyahu didn’t get a win on that either.
The night before, the prime minister held what his office called a “warm and productive” meeting with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, his top legal adviser Pierre Gentin and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
But in the Oval Office, Trump noticeably avoided committing to removing the tariffs on Israel.
“Well, we’re talking about a whole new trade — maybe not,” he said. “Maybe not.”
Then he really turned the screws.
“Don’t forget, we help Israel a lot,” Trump said. “We give Israel $4 billion a year, that’s a lot.”
He even offered what sounded like sneering congratulations to Israel for extracting that much money from the US: “Congratulations, by the way. That’s pretty good.”
Netanyahu had to sit there and smile.
“We give Israel billions of dollars a year,” Trump continued. “Billions. It’s one of the highest of anyone. We give a lot of countries money, you wouldn’t believe it.”
Strike three: Erdogan
On Turkey, too, Trump showed that he wasn’t about to be moved by Netanyahu. The president praised Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, perhaps the leading critic of Israel on the world stage, one whom Israel calls an antisemitic dictator.
Less than two weeks after Erdogan called for Allah to “destroy Zionist Israel,” Trump was describing him as “very smart” and congratulating him for “taking over Syria.”
“Any problem that you have with Turkey, I think we can solve, as long as you are reasonable, you have to be reasonable,” he hectored Netanyahu.
Struck out
If Netanyahu thought that solidly pro-Israel US officials, public praise of Trump, and overt imitation of his griping about the deep state and fake news would be enough to sail through the next four years, he received a rude wake-up call in the Oval Office.
Though Netanyahu is better than most world leaders at staying in Trump’s good graces, the president isn’t as susceptible to charm or subtle manipulation as some might think. On some issues he is willing to remain surprisingly flexible, on others he makes up his mind and plows ahead.
Trump is determined to change the way the world trades with the US, and close allies like Israel will pay a price. Somehow, Erdogan, who can’t hold a conversation in English, has won Trump over, and it doesn’t seem like there is much Netanyahu can do to change that.
And for now, at least, Trump still believes talking to Iran can solve the nuclear problem, Israel’s reservations be damned.
Netanyahu came to Washington expecting to solve the tariff issue, and provide a model for other world leaders on how to negotiate with Trump. Such an outcome would have been a much-needed home run for the prime minister, who is flying back to continuing protests, his corruption trial and a Qatargate scandal that he can’t shake.
As the Dodgers players at the White House could have told him, when you whiff three times — on tariffs, Iran talks and Turkey — you’ve struck out.
No comments:
Post a Comment