CRITICAL QUESTION: Are Trump & Netanyahu on same page concerning Hostages, Gaza, Iran & Saudis?

WASHINGTON — All eyes on the Middle East are on the White House today.

President Donald J. Trump is meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today around 4pm eastern, or 11pm Israel time.

After about an hour in the Oval Office, Trump and Netanyahu — the first foreign guest of Trump’s second term — will hold a press conference.

Afterwards, the two leaders and their most senior advisors are expected to have a working dinner in the West Wing.

The critical question is this: Are Trump and Bibi on the same page when it comes to a list of enormously important yet enormously complicated and controversial issues.

• Will Trump insist that Netanyahu carry through with negotiating — and committing to completing — the second phase of the hostage & ceasefire deal that White House special envoy Steve Witkoff helped broker, or will Trump support Netanyahu going back to war to finish off Hamas for good?

• Is Trump serious about wanting to move 2.3 million Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip into Egypt and Jordan until Gaza can be cleared of weapons, bombs and rubble and then rebuilt, despite the strenuous opposition of moderate Arab leaders, or is this a bargaining chip Trump is creating to persuade Arab leaders to be more amenable on other matters? Does Netanyahu agree with Trump on this highly controversial matter? Does Bibi have his own “day after” plan? 

• Do Trump and Netanyahu agree on the best way to neutralize the Iran nuclear threat that is getting worse by the day?

• What’s more, do Trump and Netanyahu agree on the best way to achieve an historic peace and normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia? How will the two men respond to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s demand for the creation of a Palestinian state in combination with what I’m calling a “Deal of the Millennium” with Israel? So far, Bibi is dead set against creating a Palestinian state and says his government would collapse if he agreed to one. But the Saudis note that Netanyahu already enthusiastically agreed to Trump’s vision of a demilitarized Palestinian state that Trump rolled out with Bibi standing next to him in January 2020.

I’ve come to Washington to cover this historic week in U.S.-Israel relations.

I’ve also come to participate in the bipartisan National Prayer Breakfast Gathering, initiated back in the 1950s by President Dwight Eisenhower and the Reverend Billy Graham, the world’s most famous and influential evangelist and Evangelical leader of the 20th century. 

Upwards of 4,000 Evangelical leaders, Members of Congress, business leaders, and foreign ambassadors and diplomats are expected to attend the Thursday morning main event.

There will also be numerous special lunches, dinners, and side meetings.

Organized by Evangelical Members of Congress of both parties — and by Evangelical followers of Jesus based in and around the nation’s Capitol, each event is aimed at encouraging prayer for the United States and the American people, and for international peace and cooperation.

Several Israeli leaders are coming to attend the breakfast and several side meetings organized in part by ALL ISRAEL NEWS and The Joshua Fund. More on that later in the week.