Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, on November 28, 2017. (Haim Zach / GPO)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu departs for Florida, with plans to meet with President Trump and Secretary of State Rubio as US pushes for Israeli backing for phase two of the Gaza peace plan.
By World Israel News Staff
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu departed on Sunday morning from Ben Gurion International Airport for Miami, ahead of planned meetings with President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Netanyahu’s plane, the Wing of Zion, is slated to touch down in Florida at 2:00 p.m. Sunday local time, with no press conference planned following his arrival.
The Israeli premier will meet with Rubio at a Miami hotel at 2:00 p.m. on Monday, before a visit to President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate at 3:30 p.m.
During the Mar-a-Lago meeting tomorrow, Trump and Netanyahu are expected to focus primarily on the White House’s efforts to move forward with the second phase of the 20-point Gaza peace plan, and on growing concerns regarding Iran’s ballistic missile program and Tehran’s refusal to end its uranium enrichment program.
According to a report by Axios, senior officials in the Trump administration have accused Netanyahu of working to undermine the Gaza peace plan, and have urged the president to pressure the Israeli premier to agree to back the implementation of the second phase of the deal, which would include the deployment of the international stabilization force in Gaza, a gradual IDF withdrawal, and the reconstruction of Gaza – along with the disarming of Hamas.
Each of these points is expected to be addressed during Netanyahu’s meeting with Trump, with particular focus on ways to move forward with a partial implementation of the second phase in the event that Hamas continues to refuse demands to disarm.
Top administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, Chief of Staff Susan Wiles, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, and Trump’s son-in-law and confidant Jared Kushner, are increasingly frustrated with the Israeli premier, Axios claimed.
“It’s JD, Marco, Jared, Steve, Susie,” a White House official said. “He has lost them. The only one he has left is the president, who still likes him, but even he wants to see the Gaza deal moving faster than it is right now.”
A senior Israeli official told Axios that Netanyahu will attempt to “convince a one-man audience” to hold Hamas to account over its failure to demilitarize, and to look for alternative ways to apply pressure to Hamas, shelving key parts of phase two of the Gaza plan.
“It’s a crucial meeting,” the Israeli official was quoted as saying. “It is not clear whether Trump is in the same place Witkoff and Kushner are.”
“The question is whether Trump will side with him or with his top advisers when it comes to Gaza. Who knows what Trump will choose?”
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