Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to leave Monday for a 3-day trip in Washington where he will meet on Wednesday in the Oval Office with Donald Trump, for the first time since the new US President took office.

The meeting comes ‘’as Trump continues to signal that his Middle East policies will be less friendly toward the current Israeli government than many in Jerusalem had hoped,’ writes The Times of Israel.

On Sunday, Netanyahu convened a special session of his cabinet to hear his ministers’ views on the various matters on the agenda for his White House meeting. Following Sunday’s cabinet session, the Prime Minister will “present to the president Israel’s national interest as he understands it,” his office said.

The Israeli premier said that his single motivation is Israel's national interests; 'We must act with responsibility and rationality,' the PM says of the upcoming meeting.

He sought to lower expectations for a drastic change in American policies now that Trump is in the White House, telling Likud ministers on Sunday that "to think there are no limitations now would be wrong."

He said that "we must act with responsibility and rationality." "Trump and I know each other for many years, but this is the first time we'll be meeting as US president and prime minister," he added.

At the beginning of the cabinet meeting, Netanyahu explained that "this meeting is very important for Israel's security and its international status. I've been holding numerous consultations ahead of the meeting with officials from the defense establishment, the National Security Council and the Foreign Ministry."

Trump, who is generally considered as pro-Israel, caught many Israelis by surprise when he spoke out against settlement expansion and said he was still unsure about moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

In an interview with daily Israel Hayom, the president said Israeli settlements in the West Bank “don’t help the process” of reaching peace, the first time he personally made comments about the issue days after the Israeli parliament voted the so-called ‘’Regulation Law’’ which retroactively legalizes West Bank settlement outposts,.

“Every time you take land for settlements, there is less land left,” he said. “But we are looking at that, and we are looking at some other options we’ll see. But no, I am not somebody that believes that going forward with these settlements is a good thing for peace.”

In Friday’s interview, Trump said he was anticipating stronger ties between Israel and the US as well as a strong personal connection with Netanyahu, and expressed his hopes for a regional peace deal, something that eluded his predecessors.

“I think we are going to have a better relationship with Israel,” he said.

In the interview with Israel Hayom, he also spoke of his campaign pledge to move the the US embassy to Jerusalem, saying: ‘’I am thinking about the embassy, I am studying the embassy issue, and we will see what happens. The embassy is not an easy decision. It has obviously been out there for many, many years, and nobody has wanted to make that decision. I’m thinking about it very seriously, and we will see what happens.”

In the meantime, Israel’s President, Reuven Rivlin, decried the ‘’Regulation Law’’, saying the bill could cause Israel to look like an apartheid state.

"Israel has adopted international law. It does not allow a country acting according to it to apply and enforce its laws on territories that are not under its sovereignty. If it does so, it is a legal cacophony. It will cause Israel to be seen as an apartheid state, which it is not,” Rivlin reportedly said during a meeting.

Netanyahu will be the fifth head of state to meet with Trump since the new president was sworn in on January. 20. Thus far, Trump has met with British Prime Minister Theresa May, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and King Abdullah of Jordan. On Monday, he is scheduled to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.