Trump to host Netanyahu, Zelensky as Ukraine, Iran wars reach critical stages

WASHINGTON, July 28: US President Donald Trump hosts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday, with wars in Iran and Ukraine at critical stages and his ties with both leaders markedly different.

Relations with Zelensky have warmed as Ukraine has blunted Russian advances, while Netanyahu arrives amid growing White House frustration over the lack of progress toward a broader settlement in the Iran conflict and criticism from some of Trump's supporters who oppose deeper US involvement in the Middle East.

Al Jazeera adds, United States President Donald Trump is set to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House for the seventh time during his second term, flouting the political risk of holding a high-profile meeting with the increasingly unpopular leader amid the US-Israel war with Iran.

The face-to-face on Tuesday will be the first time the two men have met since they jointly launched the war on February 28, a turn that has piqued the already growing wariness of Israel among the US public, and increasingly, within some segments of Trump’s own Republican Party.

The meeting was announced late last week, with Netanyahu already planning to travel to Washington, DC, for the funeral of US Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the staunchest supporters in Congress of Israel’s interests.

“There hasn’t been a Netanyahu visit since the war began, probably because the war so quickly devolved into a disaster that it just becomes bad optics to have Netanyahu come here,” Andrew Day, senior editor at The American Conservative, told Al Jazeera.

A slate of recent polls has shown Republican disapproval of US policy towards Israel growing, if still markedly less than among Democrats. Notably, a Politico poll released last week showed just a third of self-identified Make America Great Again (MAGA) voters, typically the most unquestioning of Trump’s base, felt the economic costs of the war with Iran were worth it.

Couple that with the widespread perception that Israel pulled the US into the war with Iran, Day said, and the meeting with Netanyahu could prove politically costly as Republicans stare down the midterm elections just over three months away.�"AGENCIES