Netanyahu Heads to Washington as Trump Pushes for Israel-Hamas Cease-Fire

For Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, the meeting with President Trump scheduled for Monday will serve as a kind of victory lap after the joint Israeli-U.S. assault last month on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The White House visit — the prime minister’s third since Mr. Trump returned to office — is likely to add luster to Mr. Netanyahu’s laurels, especially with his voters back home, analysts said, as he soon heads into an election year.

But such trips have yielded surprises in the past.

The last time Mr. Netanyahu was in the Oval Office, in April, he sat somewhat awkwardly at Mr. Trump’s side as the president announced that Washington would be engaging in “direct” talks with Iran in a last-ditch effort to rein in the country’s nuclear program. That month, Mr. Netanyahu tried to convince Mr. Trump that the time was right for a military assault on Iran, but he was swatted down.

The United States said it was also brokering talks between Israel and Syria aimed at restoring calm along their frontier.