Trump, Netanyahu look for fresh start

President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are looking to start anew when the two leaders meet Wednesday at the White House, their first summit since Trump’s election. 

Since taking office, Trump has promised a better relationship with the Israeli leader, who had a notoriously cool and strained relationship with former President Obama.

{mosads}Trump has also signaled a strong desire to work on a Middle East peace deal, repeatedly saying his senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner will be focused on the issue and will produce results.

At their meeting on Wednesday, both Netanyahu and Trump — the first Republican president the Israeli leader will encounter in the Oval Office — want to signal that the two nations are turning a new leaf and that the icy era between the two governments is thawing.

Both leaders “want to project that it was a success,” said David Halperin, executive director of the Israel Policy Forum. “That is the primary goal here.”

Some are predicting that Trump and Netanyahu will not fail, simply because both have so much at stake for a positive relationship.

“This is a meeting that is doomed to succeed,” Dennis Ross, the diplomat who served as a special adviser to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said on a conference call with reporters earlier this week. “Both leaders are under pressure to demonstrate that the problems are gone from the previous administration.” 

Trump nominated hardliner David Friedman as his ambassador to Israel, signaling a pro-Israeli bent to his administration. Friedman has defended Israel’s right to build new housing settlements in occupied territories and has rejected the two-state solution for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

A senior White House official told reporters Tuesday that the U.S. will not “dictate” the terms of a deal and would seek to achieve peace with or without a two-state agreement.

After the Obama administration in December decided to not veto a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements, Trump blasted the outgoing administration and promised Israel that change was coming.

Since then, however, Trump at times has edged back to the center — and policies on Israel that have been backed by Democratic and Republican administrations.

In a notable example, he said the construction of new Israeli settlements is not helpful to the peace process.

“[The settlements] don’t help the process. I can say that,” Trump told Yisrael Hayom in an interview published last week. “There is so much land left. And every time you take land for settlements, there is less land left. But we are looking at that, and we are looking at some other options, we’ll see.”

“But no, I am not somebody that believes that going forward with these settlements is a good thing for peace,” Trump said.

The comments left some pro-Israel groups unhappy. 

“It looks like another broken promise,” one official from a pro-Israel group said. “But I think we’re all waiting to see what happens.” 

Pro-Israel advocates could be waiting for some time. While Israeli advocates expect the issue of settlements will come up, Trump and Netanyahu are expected to focus on Iran, an issue where they have common ground. 

Both leaders are expected to discuss new sanctions that could be imposed on Tehran for its ballistic missile program.

Ross said he expected some kind of an announcement about a new joint working group on Iran, which could be used to highlight unity between the two governments.

“I expect there will be some tough statements on Iran from Trump in the presence of the prime minister,” Ross said. 

Before making the trip to Washington, Netanyahu was already conveying that the two nations won’t agree on everything.

Still, as he comes under increasing pressure from the right in Israel, Netanyahu telegraphed that he and Trump have the ability to reach agreements, especially because they have “known each other for years,” as he told cabinet members, according to a report in The New York Times. 

More than anything, some officials at pro-Israel groups said they were pleased that Kushner, an orthodox Jew, would be involved in Israel policy because he could speak from the heart. 

Already, the officials pointed to signs of movement and continuing correspondence between Kushner and Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer.

Halperin, however, took a wait-and-see approach. 

“It’s far too early to tell or to speculate what his role will be or how influential he or any other individual at the White House will be,” he said, adding, “We haven’t heard from him.” 

Jordan Fabian contributed.