Sawt Falasteen - Netanyahu to plead with Trump for tariff break

Netanyahu, holding talks with Trump for the second time since the US president returned to power in January, will also seek further backing on Iran and Gaza where a short-lived US-brokered truce has collapsed.

"We're going to talk about trade, and we're going to talk about the obvious subject," Trump told reporters on board Air Force One on Sunday as he returned from a golfing weekend in Florida.

"There's a lot of things going on with the Middle East right now that have to be silenced."

Netanyahu met with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Sunday night soon after his arrival, according to his office.

The Israeli premier also met Trump's special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff on Monday.

Arriving in Washington direct from a visit to Hungary, Netanyahu's chief objective was to try to persuade Trump to reverse the decision, or at the very least to reduce the 17 percent levy set to be imposed on Israeli imports before it takes effect.

Before leaving Budapest, Netanyahu had said his discussions would cover a range of issues, including "the tariff regime that has also been imposed on Israel."

"I'm the first international leader, the first foreign leader who will meet with President Trump on a matter so crucial to Israel's economy," he said in a statement.

"I believe this reflects the special personal relationship and the unique bond between the United States and Israel, which is so vital at this time."

In Budapest, Netanyahu met Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who pulled his country out of the International Criminal Court (ICC) because it has issued an arrest warrant for the Israeli leader.

Both leaders also spoke by phone with Trump on Thursday.

- 'Urgency' -

Analysts said Netanyahu would seek to secure an exemption from the tariffs for Israel.

"The urgency (of the visit) makes sense in terms of stopping it before it gets institutionalized," said Jonathan Rynhold, head of political studies at Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv.

Such an exemption would not only benefit Trump's closest Middle East ally but also "please Republicans in Congress, whose voters care about Israel, but are unwilling to confront Trump on this at this point," he said.

Israel had attempted to dodge the new tariffs by moving preemptively a day before Trump's announcement and lifting all remaining Israeli duties on the one percent of US goods still affected by them.

But Trump did not exempt Israel from his global salvo, saying the United States had a significant trade deficit with the country, the top beneficiary of US military aid.

Netanyahu will also discuss the war sparked by Hamas's October 2023 attack, the Israeli hostages still held in Gaza, and the "growing threat from Iran," his office said.

Israel resumed intense strikes on Gaza on March 18, and the weeks-long ceasefire with Hamas that the United States, Egypt and Qatar had brokered collapsed.

Efforts to restore the truce have failed, with nearly 1,400 people killed in renewed Israeli air and ground operations, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory.

Palestinian militants in Gaza are still holding 58 hostages, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

On Iran, Trump has been pressing for "direct talks" with Tehran on a new deal to curb the Islamic republic's nuclear programme.

But Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghai said Tehran's proposal for indirect negotiations was "generous, responsible and wise."

There has been widespread speculation that Israel, possibly with US help, might attack Iranian facilities if no agreement is reached.

T.Samara--SF-PST