The upscale restaurant at President Donald J. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago is expected to be especially crowded next week. That will not only be because Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his entourage are arriving at US President Donald Trump’s estate, but mainly because both leaders’ plates will be overflowing.
Netanyahu is expected to lay out the threats Israel faces and the possible courses of action, including with regard to Iran, Syria, Lebanon and Gaza. For dessert, if he does his job properly, he will remind his host that Egypt is systematically violating the peace treaty and playing a double game not only with Israel but also with the Americans.
Trump, for his part, will likely tell Netanyahu that his own military is fighting as well. In neighboring Syria, US forces carried out a wide-ranging airstrike on Saturday. At almost the same time, the US Navy seized an oil tanker that had sailed from Venezuela.
Trump has taken these offensive actions while repeatedly declaring that he has no interest in wars. In this term, as the whole world knows, he sees himself as a global peacemaker. But Venezuela, he says, is flooding the US with lethal drugs, leaving no choice but to work toward toppling its president.
Terrorist groups persist in their objective of dismantling Israel, and in light of the lack of total disarmament, Israel has the right to protect itself from every angle. While Trump may not wish to be forever involved in the unfinished war Israel still faces, it is essential that he allows Israel to make decisions based on its own assessment to resolve the ongoing attacks against it. Indeed, the war has gone on for too long for individuals outside of Israel; however, for Israel, the task remains incomplete, and the imperative for terrorists to surrender their weapons is essential for concluding the war and Israel finally seeing a lasting peace.
Source:
Will Washington align with Jerusalem?, by Ariel Kahana/Israel Hayom, December 21, 2025