Image Credit: Right Side Broadcasting Network / YouTube screenshot 
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting with President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago Monday to discuss the 20-point Gaza peace plan which was brokered by the White House.
After behind-closed-doors meeting that lasted for about two hours Trump and Netanyahu addressed the media in a press conference.
Trump said he’s “not concerned” about Israel’s actions in regard to second phase of the Gaza ceasefire plan, which is notable as there were rumblings of White House officials becoming frustrated at Israel’s reluctance to move into phase two.
“I’m not concerned about anything that Israel is doing. I’m concerned about what other people are doing or maybe aren’t doing, but I’m not concerned. They’ve lived up to the plan. They’re strong,” Trump said.
Trump told the media that him and Netanyahu “came to a lot of conclusions” during the meeting, Netanyahu thanked Trump for being such a good friend to Israel.
The Israeli Prime Minister described the meeting as being “very, very productive.”
“There’s very little difference in what we’re looking at and where we want to be, where we want to go,” Trump said about the private meeting’s conclusion.
Trump said they have peace in the Middle East and that he thinks they will be able to keep it that way.
Netanyahu said he’s awarding the “Israel Prize” to President Trump “for his tremendous contributions to Israel and the Jewish people”.
“You have a war time Prime Minister at the highest level, there could be other war time Prime Ministers but they’d lose,” Trump said of Netanyahu. “He won.”
Trump claimed that if Israel didn’t have a strong Prime Minister like Netanyahu, there may be no Israel right now.
Trump said the Palestinians would move if they had a “better climate” to move to. One reporter asked why other countries won’t accept them, to which Trump said he doesn’t want to talk about that because he doesn’t want the controversy.
When a reporter asked about Israel’s activities in the West Bank and whether violence by settlers is undermining the peace process, Trump replied that he and Netanyahu “don’t agree on the West Bank 100%, but we’ll come to a conclusion on the West Bank. .. He will do the right thing.”
Trump said it would be “horrible” for Hamas to not disarm, reiterating that what would happen to them will be horrible.
“[Hamas] will be given a very short period to disarm”, Trump said. “And we’ll see how that works out … But if they don’t disarm, as they agreed to do, they agreed to it, then there’ll be hell to pay for them. And we don’t want that. But they have to disarm within a fairly short period of time.”
Embed from Getty ImagesImage caption: PALM BEACH, FLORIDA – DECEMBER 29: U.S. President Donald Trump holds a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago club on December 29, 2025 in Palm Beach, Florida. The two leaders held a bilateral meeting to discuss regional security in the Middle East as well as the U.S.-Israel partnership. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
A reporter asked Trump how close we are to war with Iran, to which Trump said Tehran knows that continuing to develop a nuclear program will result in very serious consequences.
“If they are [rebuilding their nuclear program], we’re going to have no choice but very quickly to eradicate that build-up,” Trump said. “I hope Iran is not trying to build up, as I’ve been reading, that they’re building up weapons and other things, and if they are, they’re not they’re not using the sites that we obliterated, but they’re using possibly different sites.”
Trump did say that he would support bilateral discussions with Tehran.
The President also commented on the militant group Hezbollah, saying that “Hezbollah’s been behaving badly, so we’ll see what happens.”
Trump said that when Iraq was “blew up” by the U.S. Iran gained power in its absence, but that he is combating that power grab.
Trump revealed that at some time in the future, Saudi Arabia will sign the Abraham Accords, but that the country is getting along great with Israel currently.
Regarding Syria and their new “diversity-friendly jihadi” leader, Trump said he will get along with Israel.
“I’m sure that him and Israel will get along. I will try and make it so that they get along,” Trump said.
Prior to the behind-closed-doors meeting, Trump and Netanyahu took questions from the press at the entrance of Mar-a-Lago.
Trump said that he hopes Israel can move into the second phase of the White House-brokered Gaza peace plan “As quickly as we can, but there has to be a disarmament. We have to disarm with Hamas. It’s one of the things we’ll talk about certainly, but there has to be a disarming of Hamas. Otherwise, very quickly.”
While Trump did the vast majority of the talking with the media, Netanyahu said Israel is very blessed to have a leader like Trump in the White House.
“We’ve never had a friend like President Trump in the White House. It’s not even close. And I think you can judge that by the not merely by the frequency of our meetings, but by the content and the intensity,” Netanyahu said. “I think Israel is very blessed to have President Trump leading the United States, and I’ll say leading the free world, at this time. I think it’s not merely Israel’s great fortune. I think it’s the world’s great fortune.”
Netanyahu is facing prosecution in an Israeli corruption probe. When asked about this, Trump said “He’s a wartime prime minister who’s a hero. How do you not give a pardon? I spoke to the president … he tells me it’s on its way.”
However, Times of Israel reported that the Israeli President Isaac Herzog rebuked Trump’s claim:
After US President Donald Trump claimed that President Isaac Herzog had recently told him that a pardon for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “on its way,” Herzog’s office quickly issues a denial.
“There has been no conversation between President Herzog and President Trump since the pardon request was submitted,” Herzog’s office says in a statement.
Trump responded to a reporter who asked about the remains of the last Israeli hostage, which Trump said “We’re doing everything we can to get his body back.”
When asked about Turkish troops in Gaza, Trump said he has a great relationship with President [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan.
“We’ll be talking about it, and if it’s good, I think that’s good… Turkey’s been great, and he’s been excellent as far as I’m concerned. To me, he’s been very good.”
Trump discussed Israel’s rule under Netanyahu and the Iranian threat they face:
“He’s done a phenomenal job. He’s taken Israel through a very dangerous period of trauma,” says Trump. “Israel, with other people, might not exist right now, if you want to know the truth.”
“With the wrong prime minister right now, Israel would not exist,” he claims, “because they were met with a force the likes of which not many countries could have handled. We worked together and we were extremely victorious, to put it mildly.”
“Now I hear that Iran is trying to build up again, and if they are, we’re going to have to knock them down. We’ll knock the hell out of them. But hopefully that’s not happening. I heard Iran wants to make a deal, if they make a deal that’s much smarter. They could have made a deal the last time before we went through a big attack. They decided not to make the deal. They wished they made that deal.”
“They want to make a deal, but sometimes that doesn’t happen.”
After taking questions from the press, Trump and Netanyahu went inside Mar-a-Lago for a private meeting.
Embed from Getty ImagesImage caption: US President Donald Trump (center R) meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (center L) during a bilateral meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, on December 29, 2025. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP via Getty Images)
Trump’s team is comprised of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, White House Deputy Chiefs of Staff Stephen Miller and Dan Scavino, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
Trump held a similar meeting with Ukraine’s Dictator Vladimir Zelensky on Sunday.
Netanyahu is expected to tell Trump that in order for a ceasefire to take place to protect the living, the dead body of the last Israeli hostage must be returned. Gaza survivors fear the frantic Israeli-body-return-effort threatens Trump’s ceasefire.
Geopolitical expert Joel Skousen explained (at 2:34:30 into the September 29 Alex Jones Show) how the remains are extremely important to Israel, as many Jews do not believe in the eternal life of the soul after death, so the dead bodies are all they have.”
“The family of the last person whose remains have not been returned, Ran Gvili, has joined the Israeli prime minister’s visiting entourage and will meet officials in Washington later this week,” the Guardian said. “Hamas has freed 20 living hostages and returned the bodies of 27 dead hostages since October and some observers see the insistence on Gvili’s remains as a delaying tactic to allow Israel’s military forces to remain in the 53% of Gaza they currently control.”
On Friday Axios reported that “White House officials think Netanyahu is slow-walking the peace process, and fear he will resume the war with Hamas. But while the Israeli prime minister is butting heads with Trump’s team, he hopes to bring the president himself over to his more hawkish point of view, a senior Israeli official said.”
The plan’s next steps call for a new Palestinian government, a phase that some Israelis are reportedly apprehensive of, “Trump’s top team has grown increasingly frustrated as Netanyahu has taken steps to undermine the fragile ceasefire and stall the peace process.”
“The White House wants to unveil a Palestinian technocratic government and International Stabilization Force for Gaza as soon as possible, and potentially even convene the Trump-led Board of Peace at the World Economic Forum in Davos later in January, White House officials say,” according to Axios.
Netanyahu is facing an election in 10-months, and domestic pushback to his actions may put reelection in jeopardy.
“Polls show Netanyahu’s current coalition would struggle to form a government if elections were held now, with many voters angry over the failures that led to the Hamas raid of 2023, moves to continue the exemption of most ultra-Orthodox Jewish men from compulsory military service in Israel and a series of scandals, among other issues,” the Guardian said. “A close relationship with Trump would reinforce Netanyahu’s appeal among undecided voters and his base, and this suggests any public disagreement between the two leaders is extremely unlikely, analysts said.”
Preceding the meeting with Trump, Netanyahu met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Image caption: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plane is seen at Palm Beach International Airport in Palm Beach, Florida, on December 29, 2025. US President Donald Trump will Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago later today. (Photo by Allison ROBBERT / AFP via Getty Images)
On Sunday night Netanyahu spoke with a number of individuals, including Elon Musk.
Last night, I held a joint conference call from Florida with entrepreneur Elon Musk, Minister of Transportation Miri Regev, and the head of the National AI Headquarters, Erez Askal.
In the framework of the conversation, Musk responded to my invitation and Minister Regev’s invitation to participate in the Smart Transportation Conference that will be held in March.
Additionally, we discussed the continuation of collaborations with Tesla and the promotion of the law pertaining to autonomous vehicles.
I spoke at length with Musk about promoting and developing artificial intelligence technologies in Israel, and I said in our conversation: We intend to catapult Israel and turn it into a global leader in the field, just as we did in cyber and other technologies.
On Saturday Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said that Tehran is in a “full-scale war” with the U.S., Israel and Europe.
“We are in a full-scale war with the U.S., Israel and Europe; they don’t want our country to remain stable,” Pezeshkian said in an interview Saturday.
Pezeshkian detailed the ‘total war’ tactics that he claims the West is waging against Iran.
”Here, they are besieging us from every aspect, they are putting us in difficulty and constraint, creating problems — in terms of livelihood, culturally, politically, and security-wise — while raising society’s expectations,” Pezeshkian said.
