JOHN YANG: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has an appointment at the White House Monday to meet with President Trump.

Netanyahu left Israel today for the two leaders first in person meeting since last month's joint U.S.-Israeli assault on Iranian nuclear facilities.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, Prime Minister, Israel (through translator): We have never had such a great friend in the White House, and our joint mobilization has brought a great victory over our common enemy, Iran.

There's also great opportunity, and the opportunity is to expand the circle of peace far beyond what we could have imagined before.

JOHN YANG: There will be plenty to talk about.

High on the agenda is likely to be Mr. Trump's push for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, even as Israeli and Hamas negotiators are set to talk in Qatar, the Israeli military said it struck more than 100 Hamas targets in Gaza, and hospital officials said 38 Palestinians were killed.

Kenneth Pollack is vice president for Policy at the Middle East Institute.

Ken, when these two leaders sit down tomorrow, what does each hope or want to come out of it?

KENNETH POLLACK, Middle East Institute: Well, look, I think that it's a lot more complicated for Prime Minister Netanyahu than it is for President Trump.

For President Trump, as you pointed out, he is looking to get a ceasefire in Gaza.

But more than that, I think he's just being opportunistic.

What we've seen from his six months back in office is he's just looking for wins.

If he can get a win, he runs with it.

If he doesn't, even if he tosses out an idea, if it goes nowhere, he's perfectly glad to discard it or wait on it.

So right now, I think what he's waiting to hear from Prime Minister Netanyahu is what are you willing to do that's going to be good for me, good for Donald Trump?

The problem is Prime Minister Netanyahu, although he's riding high at the moment in Israel, he still has a range of challenges out there.

First, he's almost certainly mulling whether to hold snap elections in Israel, take advantage of his current popularity.

He's still facing a war with Gaza.

There seems to be no sign that he's actually interested in a meaningful ceasefire, a permanent ceasefire.

It's unclear whether Iran is out, they're certainly down.

But whether their nuclear program has gone for good is an open question.

The United States has started talks with the Iranians.

Prime Minister Netanyahu is very concerned about what the U.S. is ready to give to the Iranians in return for whatever he's going to get from them.

And then there are tantalizing prospects for peace with Lebanon, with Syria, with Saudi Arabia.

All of these things are going to be things where Prime Minister Netanyahu is going to be looking for firm commitments from President Trump, whereas as I said, President Trump is probably just looking for wins from Prime Minister Netanyahu.

JOHN YANG: This is going to be Mr. Netanyahu's third visit to the White House since President Trump went back in office.

In Gaza, does the - - what happened in Iran, does that change the calculus or the thinking on either side, on either the Israeli side or the Hamas side?

KENNETH POLLACK: It's hard to see it changing Hamas's calculations at all.

They are where they are.

They are, of course, in a no win situation, just as the Israelis are.

They won't give up the hostages without a permanent ceasefire.

And the Israelis seem to have little inclination to give them a permanent ceasefire.

I think for the Israelis, the real question is whether the bolstering of Prime Minister Netanyahu's popularity as a result of the 12 day war with Iran has made it possible for him to imagine doing some things with Gaza that he wouldn't have done beforehand, agreeing first to a 60-day ceasefire, agreeing possibly even to a permanent ceasefire.

These are the kind of things which would be very hard for Prime Minister Netanyahu to do under any circumstances because of the very right wing nature of his Cabinet, the fact that he's got some real hardline right wingers who want no truce with Hamas whatsoever.

But if there were ever a moment when he might be able to do so now, after he's gotten this big boost from the war with Iran, that's a moment when he might.

JOHN YANG: Talk a little bit about the relationship between Mr. Trump and Mr. Netanyahu.

It was clear that Netanyahu wanted Trump back in the White House during the campaign.

But since he has gotten back, the President has alternately praised him and chastised him.

Talk a little bit about that.

KENNETH POLLACK: Sure.

So, you know, all relationships with President Trump seem to be fraught.

They seem to be difficult.

He's a rather mercurial character.

He says he likes to be unpredictable.

He thinks it's an advantage of his.

He doesn't really believe in staff work or planning.

He goes with his gut.

All of this makes him tough to deal with.

And before President Trump came back into office, I think that Prime Minister Netanyahu thought, well, he's been very pro-Israel in the past, he'll let us do whatever we wanted to do.

But that's only been partly true.

You know, what we've seen is that President Trump has been perfectly glad to put a halt to Prime Minister Netanyahu's cherished positions.

You know, famously telling him he was going to go ahead with talks with Iran when it was clear the Israelis did not want him to do so.

Famously telling the Israelis not to attack Iran because he wanted to do the talks with Iran instead.

Although, of course, it's worth noting that President Trump seems to be very forgiving of the fact that Prime Minister Netanyahu went ahead and attacked Iran anyway on the eve of new U.S.-Iran talks.

But since President Trump seems to feel like he got a big win from having contributed to the war, having bombed three of the main Iranian nuclear sites he saw, he seems willing to forgive Prime Minister Netanyahu.

But this is the big issue for the Israelis, is Prime Minister Netanyahu feels like he's got a friend in President Trump, but it's not always clear that he actually does.

And again, I think he's going to be very much on his toes because he doesn't know what he's going to get from President Trump this time around.

JOHN YANG: Ken Pollack of the Middle East Institute, thank you very much.

KENNETH POLLACK: Thanks so much for having me on, John.