WASHINGTON — A day before his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House, US President Donald Trump noted that Israel is a “small country” when asked about the possibility of backing West Bank annexation.
“I’m not going to talk about that. It certainly is a small, it’s a small country in terms of land,” the president said when asked about the topic by a reporter.
“See this pen?” he continued, holding up the pen he was using to sign executive orders in the Oval Office. “This wonderful pen on my desk is the Middle East, and the top of the pen — that’s Israel.”
“That’s not good, right? You know, it’s a pretty big difference. I use that as an analogy — it’s pretty accurate, actually,” he continued.
“It’s a pretty small piece of land. It’s amazing what they’ve been able to do when you think about it, [there’s] a lot of good, smart brain power, but it is a very small piece of land, no question about it,” the US president added.
During his first term in office, Trump put forth an ambitious “peace plan” that included a provision for Israel to annex about 30 percent of the West Bank, though that element was dropped when the US-brokered Abraham Accords were announced, establishing diplomatic ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and later Morocco and Sudan.
Trump also told reporters gathered in the room that he is not sure the current ceasefire in Gaza will continue.
“I have no guarantees that the peace is going to hold,” he said.
His Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, added, however: “It’s holding so far, so we’re certainly hopeful.”
“That’s the president’s direction — get the hostages out and save lives and come to… a peaceful settlement of it all,” Witkoff added. “So far, it’s holding.”
Trump and Netanyahu are slated to meet in the White House on Tuesday, a day after talks on the second stage of the ceasefire — which under the terms of the deal were intended to start no later than the 16th day of the ceasefire — were scheduled to begin.
Netanyahu was set to meet later on Monday with Witkoff to discuss those talks, following a meeting with local evangelical leaders, his office said.
The meetings and talks come amid reports that the prime minister is seeking to shake up the Israeli negotiating team, which has represented the country in more than 15 months of talks, leading to two ceasefire deals.
According to Channel 12 news, Netanyahu is considering removing Shin Bet director Ronen Bar from the team. Another senior Shin Bet official would replace Bar, according to the outlet.
The move would come after Netanyahu placed Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, a close ally, at the head of the team, replacing Mossad chief David Barnea, who remains a member.
A senior Israeli official did not directly deny the report regarding Bar, telling The Times of Israel that, “as of now, there is no change to the make-up of the negotiating team.”
Channel 13 reported on Monday that Netanyahu met with Bar over the weekend, and, in a tense conversation, informed him that he intends to change the negotiating team. Officials in the building told the outlet that Bar left the meeting visibly upset.
The Prime Minister’s Office firmly denied a Channel 12 report that Netanyahu wants to put off the next phases of the hostage-ceasefire deal and ask Trump to first work with him to “take care” of Iran and then move to a potential Saudi normalization deal.
The report claimed that Netanyahu intends to ask the US president to agree to a two-month delay in implementing the second stage of the Gaza deal, and that this is why Netanyahu did not dispatch a delegation to talks in Qatar this week.
“It is a total lie that harms the families of the hostages,” the PMO said in response to a question about the report.
Before Netanyahu and Trump sit down for their meeting in the White House, the US president will reportedly watch the footage of Hamas’s October 7 atrocities compiled by Israeli authorities in the wake of the attack. According to Ynet, Witkoff saw the footage while in Israel last week and was left shocked, and decided that the president should view it as well.
Though Netanyahu was originally expected to return to Israel on Thursday, he will instead remain in Washington through the weekend, flying back on Saturday night, his office said on Monday.
According to the PMO, the change was made due to “the many requests for meetings from US officials.” The change in departure means that Netanyahu will be overseas during the next slated release of hostages from Gaza, scheduled for Saturday.
On Wednesday, Netanyahu is scheduled to meet National Security Adviser Michael Waltz in the morning, and then sit down with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon in the afternoon.
Netanyahu will be on Capitol Hill on Thursday, meeting in the morning with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, followed by a meeting with other Senate leaders, and then sit down with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, followed by a joint statement to the press.
Sara Netanyahu, the prime minister’s wife, arrived at the Blair House on Monday to greet her husband, the PMO told The Times of Israel.
She has been living in Miami since mid-November, and did not fly back to Israel for her husband’s surgery in late December. She also did not meet him on the tarmac upon his arrival Monday at Andrews Air Force Base.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.