Mar-a-Lago, Iran, and missiles: why Netanyahu is rushing to Trump

The end of December promises to be tense for Israeli politics. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is preparing for a meeting with US President Donald Trump, where, according to American sources, the key topic will be the possible approval of new military actions against Iran. The talks are planned in Florida, at the Mar-a-Lago club, tentatively on December 29.

Trump’s statement was restrained: the date is not confirmed, but there is a request for a meeting. In Israeli circles, this signal is read unequivocally — the issue is urgent and goes far beyond diplomatic protocol.

In Jerusalem, less attention is being paid to the Iranian nuclear program as such and more to ballistic missiles. Sources familiar with the discussions emphasize: it is the missiles that are currently considered the main threat, capable of changing the balance of power faster and more painfully than nuclear facilities.

According to Israeli estimates, Iran, maintaining its current production capacities, is capable of producing up to several thousand ballistic missiles per month. This figure appears in closed briefings and causes serious concern — especially against the backdrop that air defense systems, even showing high efficiency, require colossal financial and technological resources.

The experience of the last 12-day conflict was a cold reminder. Despite interceptions at about 86 percent, dozens of Iranian missiles still reached their targets. Hits were recorded on military facilities, including air force bases. Israel officially acknowledged the strikes, emphasizing that they did not disable the infrastructure — but the very fact became a worrying marker.

The cost of defense turned out to be no less indicative. Hundreds of interceptor missiles, billions of shekels in expenses, and a limited time reserve for recovery — all this forms a new logic of decision-making. In such a reality, the question of “strike or wait” ceases to be theoretical.

The informational background around these discussions is extremely dense. In Israel, during the same days, interest sharply increases in internal football topics — “Hapoel Be’er Sheva,” “Hapoel Tel Aviv,” — in international figures from pop culture and sports, as well as in high-profile archival scandals like the Jeffrey Epstein case. Against this backdrop, security issues compete for public attention, but for the political leadership, priorities do not change.

Even in Trump’s entourage, as former American officials admit, there is no complete certainty that he will unconditionally support the Israeli approach. His position may depend on how convincingly the missile threat is presented and how it fits into a broader scenario of regional stabilization.

Nevertheless, in Jerusalem, they proceed from a simple calculation: if Iran maintains the pace of increasing its missile potential, the window for preemptive decisions will quickly close. This is precisely what Netanyahu intends to convey to Trump — without public rhetoric, but with numbers, scenarios, and direct consequences.

In a situation where the global agenda is torn between sports, scandals, and high-profile names, issues of war and security return to the center — not by trend, but by necessity. This context and its significance for Israel are regularly written about by NAnews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency, capturing moments when strategic-level decisions are hidden behind the news noise.