By Ryan Morgan
As he met with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on April 7, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed his country would equalize its trade terms with the United States.
“We will eliminate the trade deficit with the United States. We intend to do it very quickly. We think it’s the right thing to do. And we’re going to also eliminate trade barriers, a variety of trade barriers that have been put up unnecessarily,” Netanyahu said while sitting beside Trump at a joint White House press conference.
Last week, the Trump administration announced baseline and reciprocal tariffs on global trade partners. Among the planned U.S. economic measures is a 17 percent tariff on Israeli goods. Ahead of their Monday meeting, Netanyahu indicated he hoped to negotiate some tariff relief.
Addressing reporters on Monday, the two leaders described further discussions they’d had on the recently renewed fighting in the Gaza Strip, concerns about Iran’s nuclear development, and rising tensions between Israel and Turkey.
Both leaders indicated they are also working to win the release of U.S. and Israeli citizens who have been held captive in the Gaza Strip since Hamas terrorists carried out attacks across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Hamas and Israel had reached a cease-fire agreement in January, under which Hamas had agreed to release some of the remaining hostages in exchange for Israeli forces halting their operations and pulling back from major population centers.
The Gaza cease-fire collapsed last month, amid disagreements over the next steps in the cease-fire process. Israeli forces have since resumed combat operations in the war-torn territory.
“I’d like to see the war stop, and I think the war will stop at some point that won’t be in the too-distant future,” Trump said as he faced questions about the cease-fire on Monday. “Right now, we have a problem with hostages. We’re trying to get the hostages out. We got quite a few of them out, but it’s a long process.”
Netanyahu said efforts are underway to restart a cease-fire. He said he also spoke with Trump about a proposal to relocate residents of the Gaza Strip to amenable neighboring countries.
While Israeli forces have renewed their fighting against Hamas, U.S. forces have resumed their own military operations across Yemen, against the Houthi rebel movement. The Houthis began launching missiles and attack drones against Israel and against commercial shipping in the Red Sea in the fall of 2023, claiming solidarity with the Palestinians. The Houthis paused their attacks during the Gaza cease-fire this year but have since resumed hostilities.
Since restarting strikes on Yemen, Trump has repeatedly tied Yemen’s Houthi movement to Iran and has threatened that further consequences could come Tehran’s way. Last week, Trump threatened bombing operations if Tehran didn’t soon agree to a new deal limiting its nuclear development.
As he spoke with reporters on Monday, Trump announced that U.S. negotiators plan to meet with Iranian counterparts on April 12 to work out some kind of deal.
“We have a very big meeting, and we’ll see what can happen. And I think everybody agrees that doing a deal would be preferable to doing the obvious,” Trump said.
“And the obvious is not something that I want to be involved with, or, frankly, that Israel wants to be involved with if they can avoid it.”
Tensions between Israel and Turkey—both of which are formal allies of the United States—have been growing in the months since Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad fled power. Last week, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar accused Ankara of trying to turn post-Assad Syria into “a Turkish protectorate.” Meanwhile, the Turkish Foreign Ministry has accused Israel of undermining efforts to stabilize the country.
“We’ve had neighborly relations with Turkey that have deteriorated, and we don’t want to see Syria being used by anyone, including Turkey, as a base for attack in Israel,” Netanyahu told reporters on Monday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
