President Donald Trump was hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday for critical talks aimed at ending the war in Gaza and developing a U.S. plan on post-war governance in the war-battered Palestinian territory. The White House talks come at a tenuous moment. Israel is increasingly isolated, losing support from many countries that were long its steadfast allies. At home, Netanyahu’s governing coalition appears more fragile than ever. And the White House is showing signs of impatience.

The question now is whether Trump, who has offered steadfast backing to Netanyahu throughout the war, will change his tone and turn up the pressure on Israel to wind down the conflict. As he welcomed Netanyahu to the White House, Trump responded affirmatively when asked by reporters whether he was confident a deal would be soon reached to end the fighting between Israel and Hamas.

“I am. I’m very confident,” Trump said. 

Earlier, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt urged both sides to finalize an agreement to bring an end to the nearly two-year old war in Gaza. “Ultimately the president knows when you get to a good deal, both sides are going to leave a little bit unhappy,” Leavitt told reporters. “But we need this conflict to end.”

Trump and Netanyahu are first holding talks with aides in the Oval Office. A joint press conference is expected later.

The uncertainty surrounding the meeting casts it as “one of the most critical” in the yearslong relationship between the two leaders, said professor Eytan Gilboa, an expert on U.S.-Israeli relations at Bar-Ilan and Reichman universities. “Netanyahu might have to choose between Trump and his coalition members,” a number of whom want the war to continue, Gilboa said. A move by Netanyahu to end the war would leave him on shaky political ground at home a year before elections.

AP