Both the offices of President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated that the leaders’ Tuesday meeting at the White House went well. It was their first gathering since the start of the war with Iran in late February.

“There is a great deal going on right now,” said Ron Halber, the CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington. “There’s a lot of decision-making that has to be made right now in the Middle East because there are so many things that are concurrently taking place.”

Topics included how the U.S. will proceed with the Iran war, what happens if Israel gets involved, Israel’s presence in Syria and the discussion of the memorandum of understanding.

“It sounds like, based on reports, there was a very comprehensive discussion, which was the Israelis explaining to Trump some of their situation and presenting him with information to help him guide his decision-making on future action,” Halber said.

The American Jewish Committee’s Center for a New Middle East stressed the importance of a strong relationship between Trump and Netanyahu as both countries navigate purported threats from Iran, the center indicated in a statement to Washington Jewish Week.

There could be more to the story, according to local experts in foreign relations.

“On the surface, they were all smiles, and Netanyahu described it as ‘an excellent meeting’ and ‘one of the best we’ve ever had,’” said Guy Ziv, a professor of foreign policy at American University. “But behind the scenes, it’s clear that there are still tensions given where we are with the Iran war, which has not gone according to plan.”

These tensions stem from a “growing divergent interest” between the two world leaders.

“For Trump, ending this war is a priority and he seems kind of stuck,” Ziv said. “He knows that it’s very unpopular at home. He knows that Netanyahu is not popular in the U.S. and he also understands that the longer this war goes on, the more the global economy is at risk, and [Americans] are going to pay the price for it at the gas pump … That’s been frustrating him [and he’s] looking for a way to end the war.”

Ending the war is not a priority for the prime minister, however. “None of the goals he had laid out happened,” Ziv said of Netanyahu.

“He probably favors going back to war and destroying the remaining three- to 4,000 targets that they did not do when the ceasefire took over,” Halber said. “But I think the prime minister is trying to work within Trump’s mindset, which is hesitant about going back to force, despite the bravado, and trying to help achieve the objective of regime overthrow by hitting economic targets, which seems to be the emphasis of what they talked about.”

In the days since the July 28 meeting, U.S. attacks on Iran have intensified, causing disruptions such as power outages and shortages, according to The Washington Post. Trump claimed that more strikes will follow if talks fail.

Even before the meeting, tensions simmered between Trump and Netanyahu. The president’s insistence that Netanyahu enable international troops into Gaza as a prerequisite to the meeting and the prime minister’s objection to the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey were both points of contention, according to Ziv.

“That’s an issue of ongoing tension because Trump seems pretty adamant about selling these jets to Turkey and having Turkey as a strong ally, whereas Israel sees Turkey as an increasing regional threat,” Ziv said. “So there’s definitely divergence over that issue.”

Then there’s the 15-point peace plan between Hamas and Israel, which the latter will not support until Hamas completely disarms.

“There’s a lot of differences between how the Israelis and the Americans see [these issues],” Ziv said.

But Trump and Netanyahu’s alliance remains strong, even as U.S. public support for Israel wanes, according to Ziv.

A cohort of American and Israeli Jews from six Jewish organizations gathered outside the White House to protest Netanyahu and his governmental leaders. The purpose of the demonstration was to counter the prime minister’s notion that his policies are “what everyone wants,” according to Maxxe Albert-Deitch, NJN’s director of programs.

Vered Guttman, an Israeli activist and the communal chair of J Street’s D.C. chapter who helped lead the demonstration, said she doesn’t think it’s smart to continue the “terrible war” with Iran.

“I hope that there will be an agreement,” Guttman said. “I really, really hope it will be much better than the horrible deal that Trump got … It is after all this war and all the people who were killed and wounded on all sides, the agreement at the end of the day is worse than the one that Obama had. So I hope the deal will be better, and I don’t think that right now they should go into the war again.”

“I think it was a very intense meeting with a great deal of discussion on a diversity of topics, and I think we will see the outcome of some of those talks based on what actions the U.S. takes in the next 48 to 72 hours,” Halber said.

zbell@midatlanticmedia.com