This week marked the fifth meeting this year between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump, a meeting that was supposed to be about Trump pressing Netanyahu to move into the second phase of the ceasefire. In recent weeks, Trump and senior administration officials had privately expressed frustration with Netanyahu, accusing him of slow-walking, or outright trying to block, the transition to phase two. Instead, what unfolded at Mar-a-Lago was Trump lavishing praise on Netanyahu, granting him political victory on every major issue he sought, and effectively surrendering any leverage the United States claims to have. 

Netanyahu was welcomed as a legitimate head of state rather than what he is, a leader of an apartheid regime and facing an international arrest warrant for war crimes and Crimes Against Humanity. He arrived amid a so-called “ceasefire” that Israel has repeatedly violated since it took effect in October 2025. While the agreement was meant to halt military operations and allow humanitarian access, Israel has continued near-daily attacks that have killed hundreds of Palestinians even after the ceasefire entered into force, while arbitrarily restricting aid. Trump offered no condemnation, no demand for compliance, and no acknowledgment that Israel failed to meet even the most basic obligations of the first phase, despite publicly claiming Israel has upheld the deal. 

Instead of enforcing accountability, Trump allowed Netanyahu to reframe the conversation entirely, extracting U.S. support for resuming full-scale war on Gaza if Hamas does not disarm, despite Israel’s own noncompliance. Israel has not facilitated reconstruction, allowed sufficient humanitarian access, or supported the formation of a Palestinian technocratic governing structure as required under the ceasefire framework; failures that persist because Trump, as the architect and guarantor of the so-called peace plan, has refused to enforce its terms or impose any consequences for Israel’s noncompliance. Netanyahu violated phase one repeatedly, yet Trump is now pushing phase two with no conditions, no enforcement, and no accountability.

This abdication is especially damning as Israel escalates collective punishment. Humanitarian aid in Gaza is already catastrophically scarce because Israel has systematically obstructed aid for months. Yet, Israel has announced it will suspend the operations of 37 humanitarian organizations beginning January 1, 2026, including major medical and life-saving groups, under the pretext of new vetting rules. This further dismantles what little humanitarian access remains, pushing a population already facing manufactured famine, disease, flooding of refugee camps, and mass displacement closer to total collapse. A ceasefire that allows the deliberate strangulation of humanitarian lifelines is no ceasefire at all.

Rather than confronting these violations, Trump and Netanyahu used their meeting to openly discuss expanding war. Trump effectively gave Netanyahu a greenlight for further attacks on Lebanon if Hezbollah does not disarm, despite Israel’s continued occupation of Lebanese territory and near-daily strikes. He effectively greenlighted war with Iran, stating that the “United States would help strike Iran again “immediately,” which would inevitably drag the United States into yet another catastrophic conflict. He failed to get a commitment from Netanyahu for an end to Israel’s ongoing attacks on Syria. And despite Trump’s stated opposition to annexation, Israel is actively accelerating de facto annexation of the West Bank through settlement expansion, authorization of new “housing units,” and the approval of 19 new settlement outposts.

Trump did not walk into the room wielding the leverage of a president who bankrolls Israel and could enforce compliance if he chose to. Netanyahu outmaneuvered him. By breaking Israel’s long-standing tradition of awarding the so-called Israel Prize exclusively to Israelis, the Ministry of Education chose to give it to Trump. The move was calculated, it flattered Trump’s ego and fed his narcissism, effectively expanding Israel’s blank check to continue its actions. As a result, Netanyahu was able to move his way into phase two of the ceasefire without fulfilling a single obligation from phase one, all while securing U.S. backing for continued war, regional escalation, and lasting impunity.

Instead of continuing to welcome a war criminal into the country, pouring military aid into a campaign that costs both Palestinian and American lives, and legitimizing violations of international law, the United States should be doing the opposite. It should be cutting Israel off, imposing an arms embargo, enforcing accountability, and complying with both U.S. law and international law.