This absolutely bizarre – peace down to the 2 most evil men on the planet – Mark
Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu don’t like or trust each other but the future shape not just of Gaza, but of the Middle East, may hang on their meeting this week.
Mark Urban
The White House meeting between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday (local time) could hardly be more important. Indeed, the fate not just of the Gaza ceasefire but even the future shape of the Middle East may hang on it.
Such is the importance of this relationship that Netanyahu will be the first foreign leader granted an Oval Office meeting since the president’s inauguration, even though the relationship between the two men is hardly cordial.
“Trump and Netanyahu do not like one another and do not trust one another, but they really do need each other,” notes Aaron David Miller, who worked on the Middle East peace process for much of his 24 years in the US State Department and now works for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Trump wants the Gaza ceasefire to move on from its first phase into a long-term cessation of violence, opening the pathway to a strategic deal with Saudi Arabia and the containment of Iran’s nuclear program.
For the Israeli prime minister, his priority is holding on to power while denying Hamas a victory in Gaza and keeping far-right coalition partners onside.
Many question, however, how he can do those things if he gives Trump what he wants on the ceasefire.
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