Only one image was released from Wednesday’s meeting between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: a handshake in the Oval Office distributed by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office. Beyond that one frame, there were no reporters, no statements, no spontaneous laughter with shouts and questions.
The ruling added further intrigue to what was already an unusual emergency meeting, brought forward by a week at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s request. Despite President Trump’s ongoing negotiations with the Iranian government, the United States continues to build up its military presence in the Middle East.
Trump, who rarely avoids cameras, limited his post-meeting comments to social media posts. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office released a short document reaffirming “close cooperation and relations” without providing many details.
President Trump’s “Society of Truth” statement set out his insistence on continuing talks, in clear contrast to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s long-standing opposition to the nuclear deal and his desire to discuss plans for another attack on Iran during his visit to Washington.
Prime Minister Netanyahu later acknowledged that he had conveyed his reservations to President Trump. “He wanted to hear my opinion,” Netanyahu said Thursday before leaving for Israel. “I make no secret of my general skepticism about the quality of any deal with Iran.”
He stressed that any future agreement must address not only Iran’s nuclear program, but also its ballistic missile program and regional proxy networks, arguing that these issues are critical not only to Israel’s security but to broader regional stability.
It remains unclear whether the private setting and lack of cameras allowed the two leaders to hide their differences or quietly coordinate future mutual actions.
But even without cameras, every meeting in the Oval Office reflects Netanyahu’s pressing political needs: his domestic message, especially in an election year. He has publicly boasted about the number of times he has met with President Trump since returning to office, seven times, more than any other world leader. And each contact with the president guaranteed that the story would dominate the headlines for several days, allowing the prime minister to avoid, if only temporarily, the growing political problems at home that caught up with him upon his return.
Elections are required in late October, and Netanyahu has told allies he will seek a full term in office. But his coalition risks collapsing over the looming crisis over the 2026 national budget, which needs approval by March 31. Failure to pass the budget would trigger the automatic dissolution of parliament and the Knesset, and since elections are usually held within 90 days, it has been suggested that the vote could be scheduled for June.
Ultra-Orthodox parties, a key partner in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s coalition government, have tied support for the budget to voters’ longstanding exemption from military service, and are pushing for the passage of a splinter bill to make it law. Months of negotiations failed to produce a compromise acceptable to both the coalition government and the high court that ordered the draft evasion to be enforced. With no concrete compromise in sight, most political observers believe Netanyahu’s time is up.
Nebo Cohen, a political consultant who previously advised far-right politician Itamar Ben Gvir, expects the coalition to collapse even if a budget is passed and elections are held within weeks.
“Haredim (ultra-Orthodox) need the money, so the budget will probably pass,” Cohen said. “However, the conscription law will not be passed, and the coalition government will collapse. I predict that the Diet will be dissolved within about a month and a half.”
Cohen said a key pillar of Netanyahu’s re-election strategy is his relationship with President Trump, which he said is evidence that the prime minister is “in a different league” than his competitors.
Within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, officials believe his decisions on how to time the election are closely tied to his interactions with President Trump. “Only after Prime Minister Netanyahu returns from President Trump’s (visit) will he decide how far he will go to save the coalition,” a Likud official said.
Prime Minister Netanyahu invited President Trump to Israel’s Independence Day celebrations in May to receive the prestigious Israel Prize, the first to be awarded to a non-Israel. Trump has not yet accepted it, but if he did, the source predicted, the prime minister “would want to hold an election close to the trip,” using images of the two leaders together in Jerusalem at the height of his re-election campaign.
The relationship between the two leaders may be more transactional than it appears, as a veteran Israeli political official has suggested, calling the current relationship between President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu a “tacit deal.”
While President Trump has acted independently in terms of U.S. regional policy, such as promoting the Gaza cease-fire plan, resuming diplomatic contacts with Iran, and urging Israel to ease tensions in Syria, he has also openly shown support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by holding meetings at the White House and pardoning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a corruption scandal. These are all moves that Netanyahu has historically resisted.
“President Trump has offered to hug (Prime Minister Netanyahu) and meet with him in public upon request,” an Israeli source said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refrained from criticizing the move, saying that if any other US president made such a move, he would “denounce it as being contrary to Israel’s interests.” In Trump’s case, “he risks undermining one of his central assets in the election,” the source said.
On Thursday, President Trump criticized Israel’s president for not pardoning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid his ongoing corruption trial, calling it “shameful.”
President Trump has been asking President Isaac Herzog to pardon Netanyahu for months, including during a high-profile speech in Israel’s parliament last year. But his latest attack marks an escalation in the pressure campaign and comes a day after President Trump met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.
Herzog’s office responded in a statement Thursday, stressing that he has “not yet made any decisions regarding this matter.” If he does so, he will “not be influenced by any external or internal pressures of any kind,” the statement said.
