President Donald Trump is poised to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sometime on Monday in an effort to bring about an end to Israel’s military siege and aid blockade on Gaza, though one senior White House official is warning that the meeting could very well end up going “off the rails.”
“Bibi is on his own island,” the senior White House official told Politico in a report published Monday, speaking with the outlet on the condition of anonymity. “Not just from us, from his own government.”
Netanyahu is becoming increasingly isolated on the world stage amid both Israel’s ongoing siege of Gaza and the prime minister’s own fight in battling corruption charges. The Israeli leader has also been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, and faces continued blowback for the Israeli strike on U.S.-ally Qatar earlier this month, a strike that reportedly left Trump “infuriated.”
On Friday, however, Trump said that he was “very close” to a deal that would bring about the end of the war and a return of all remaining Israeli hostages currently held captive by Hamas. The only piece remaining to actually achieve that deal, however, is getting Netanyahu on board, which the White House official said is still very much an open question.
“[Trump is] being very firm in public while leaving some room for negotiations in private,” they said. “[Trump] is going to try to get him to agree to some terms that then they could take back to [Hamas] and finally get something done… [but] it could also go off the rails.”
It’s unknown what time Trump and Netanyahu’s meeting will take place, but reports confirm its set to take place sometime Monday in the Oval Office. The meeting will also follow Netanyahu’s defiant speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, New York on Friday, where he condemned western nations for recognizing the state of Palestine, and was hit by walkouts from dozens of world leaders.
As of Sunday, Netanyahu said he believes there to be 20 hostages still alive in Gaza, out of 48 total who remain in Hamas custody. The discussion on seeing a return of the hostages between Israel and the United States has largely ignored the estimated 9,500 Palestinians currently in Israeli custody, around 3,660 of them held without criminal charge.