It’s shaping up to be another pivotal moment in Middle Eastern diplomacy as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares for what could be his fifth visit to the White House since Donald Trump became president. This latest invitation, confirmed by Netanyahu’s office on December 1, 2025, comes amid a swirl of military action, shifting alliances, and diplomatic intrigue involving Israel, Syria, and the United States.
According to Reuters and the Times of Israel, Netanyahu and Trump spoke by phone on Monday, December 1. Shortly after their conversation, the prime minister’s office announced that Trump had extended an invitation for Netanyahu to visit the White House "in the near future." If Netanyahu accepts, the visit is reportedly slated for the end of December 2025.
This outreach arrives at a tense time. Just days before the invitation, the Israeli military carried out a deadly operation in the Syrian village of Beit Jinn, roughly 50 kilometers southwest of Damascus. The raid, which took place on November 28, left at least 13 people dead, according to Syrian media and reports confirmed by CNN and Middle East Eye. The Israel Defense Forces stated that two members of an Islamist military group were planning attacks on Israel, necessitating the operation. Israeli warplanes launched air strikes to prevent their ground troops from being encircled, but the fighting was fierce—six Israeli soldiers were wounded, three of them seriously.
The aftermath of the raid has been significant. The villagers of Beit Jinn reportedly resisted the Israeli incursion, and the attack shattered a relative lull in Israeli strikes on Syria that had persisted since the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s government in late 2024. According to Middle East Eye, Israel has taken advantage of Assad’s downfall to occupy a United Nations buffer zone in southern Syria, launching powerful air strikes that have even reached Damascus over the summer of 2025. Israeli forces are now entrenched on Mount Hermon, the highest peak in the region, and have sought to bolster their position by supporting the Druze minority in Syria’s south. Experts told Middle East Eye that Israel has been arming Druze leader Sheikh Hikmat Salaman al-Hajri and, in July, attacked convoys of Syrian troops attempting to deploy to the south.
All of this has played out against a backdrop of evolving U.S. policy and regional realignment. On December 1, President Trump took to his social media platform, TRUTH Social, to issue a pointed message: “The United States is very satisfied with the results displayed, through hard work and determination, in the country of Syria. It is very important that Israel maintain a strong and true dialogue with Syria and that nothing takes place that will interfere with Syria’s evolution into a prosperous state.”
Trump’s post was more than just diplomatic nicety. It was a veiled warning to Israel not to stand in the way of Syria’s transformation. The U.S. president has been actively encouraging dialogue between Israel and Syria, even as military tensions flare. In a separate TRUTH Social post, Trump praised Syria’s new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa: “The new President of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, is working diligently to make sure good things happen, and that both Syria and Israel will have a long and prosperous relationship together.”
The emergence of Ahmed al-Sharaa as Syria’s president marks a dramatic shift in the region. Sharaa, once the leader of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham—a group previously listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S.—has not only seized power after Assad’s fall but has also made a remarkable transition to international legitimacy. In November 2025, Trump hosted Sharaa at the White House, a historic meeting that underscored the new president’s evolution. During his visit, Sharaa joined a U.S.-led coalition against ISIS, signaling his willingness to cooperate with Western powers.
Sharaa’s government is now backed by a constellation of regional and international players. Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar have all thrown their support behind Damascus, while Trump lifted U.S. sanctions on Syria in May 2025 at the request of these Gulf leaders. The Gulf states are bankrolling Sharaa’s cash-strapped government, and Turkey is training Syria’s military while seeking a defense agreement with Damascus. Meanwhile, the U.S. still maintains around 1,000 troops in northeastern Syria, relying on the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to guard ISIS prisoners and their families. The SDF, which fought alongside the U.S. against ISIS, is resisting efforts to be absorbed into the Syrian military.
Military cooperation between the U.S. and Syria has continued. On November 30, U.S. Central Command announced it had destroyed 15 ISIS weapons caches in coordination with Syria’s interior ministry. According to Middle East Eye, these developments are part of a broader effort to stabilize the region and reduce the threat posed by ISIS and other militant groups.
Yet, the diplomatic front remains fraught. The U.S. has lobbied Turkey and Israel to enter deconfliction talks to avoid a clash between its two partners over Syria. In the spring of 2025, U.S. envoy Tom Barrack mediated talks between Sharaa’s government and Israel aimed at defusing tensions along their shared border. But these talks have stalled, largely due to Israel’s refusal to withdraw from territories it seized after December 2024—including areas in the UN buffer zone and the Golan Heights. Robert Ford, a former U.S. ambassador to Syria, told Middle East Eye, “I see no evidence the Israelis are preparing to withdraw from the territory they seized after December 2024, much less the Golan Heights. So what does Sharaa get in return for a deal with Israel? What’s in it for him?”
While the region is relatively more peaceful now than during the civil war, sectarian violence continues to simmer. Syria has seen attacks against Christians, Alawites, and Druze minorities, even as Sharaa’s Sunni Islamist government consolidates power. Israel, for its part, continues to portray itself as a defender of the Druze and a bulwark against renewed instability, but its deeper involvement in southern Syria has drawn scrutiny from both its allies and adversaries.
The upcoming Netanyahu-Trump meeting is likely to be a focal point for these tensions and shifting alliances. As the year draws to a close, the stakes are high: Israel’s security posture in Syria, the durability of Sharaa’s regime, and the future of U.S. engagement in the region all hang in the balance. With so many moving parts, the world will be watching closely to see whether dialogue or discord will define the next chapter in this enduring geopolitical drama.
As leaders prepare for crucial face-to-face talks, the region’s future remains as uncertain as ever—yet the possibility of a new era of diplomacy and cooperation, however fragile, is once again on the table.