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We speak to journalists Gideon Levy and Rami Khouri about President Trump’s meeting Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago, where Trump supported Israel’s threats to launch new attacks on Iran and warned Hamas to disarm during the second stage of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement. Khouri, a Palestinian American journalist, called the meeting a “continuation of the American-Israeli drive, that’s been going on for some years now, to reconfigure the Middle East … into a new colonial arrangement, whereby the U.S. and Israel dominate what goes on in the region.” Levy, Israeli journalist for Haaretz, called the meeting an “embarrassment,” noting that “Donald Trump presents himself as someone who promises the sky, who has no demands from Israel whatsoever.”

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show with President Trump’s meeting at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump expressed support for Israel’s threats to launch new attacks on Iran, as Netanyahu claims Iran is rebuilding its nuclear industries following U.S. and Israeli attacks last summer.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Now I hear that Iran is trying to build up again. And if they are, we’re going to have to knock them down. We’ll knock them down. We’ll knock the hell out of them. But hopefully that’s not happening. I heard Iran wants to make a deal. If they want to make a deal, that’s much smarter.

AMY GOODMAN: Separately, Trump warned Hamas to disarm during the upcoming second stage of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement, even as Israel has repeatedly violated the truce with near-daily attacks on Gaza.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, we talked about Hamas, and we talked about disarmament. And they’re going to be given a very short period of time to disarm, and we’ll see how that works out. Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will be in charge of that from our side. But if they don’t disarm, as they agreed to do — they agreed to it — then there will be hell to pay for them.

AMY GOODMAN: President Trump also claimed he recently spoke to Israeli President Isaac Herzog about pardoning Netanyahu, who faces charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three separate cases in Israel. Trump said Herzog promised a pardon, quote, “is on its way,” though Herzog’s office later denied the claim.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu announced Trump would become the first non-Israeli to receive the Israel Prize, the nation’s highest civilian award. The announcement came as Trump was caught on a hot mic complaining to Netanyahu he’d been denied a Nobel Peace Prize.

For more, we’re joined by two guests. In Tel Aviv, Gideon Levy is with us, an award-winning Israeli journalist, author and columnist for the newspaper Haaretz and a member of its editorial board. His latest book, The Killing of Gaza: Reports on a Catastrophe. And in Cambridge, Massachusetts, we’re joined by Rami Khouri, Palestinian American journalist, distinguished public policy fellow at the American University of Beirut. He’s also a nonresident senior fellow at the Arab Center Washington DC.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Rami Khouri, let’s begin with you. Talk about the significance of this Mar-a-Lago meeting, that dealt with everything from the U.S. saying they’d support again a........

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