FLORIDA: Former US President Donald Trump met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his private club and residence, Mar-a-Lago, Florida, on Friday, the New York Times reported.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that Hamas’s deadly terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7 and the ensuing war in Gaza would not have happened if he had won the 2020 election.
“In a meeting with former US President Donald Trump,” Netanyahu said in a post on X.
The two leaders last met in 2020. The meeting on Friday comes a day after Trump told Fox News that Israel has to “end this fast” in reference to the ongoing war with Hamas.
“It can’t continue to go on like this. It’s too long. It’s too much,” Trump said.
The meeting comes as Trump has been eager to demonstrate his ties to Israel, part of his effort to draw Jewish Americans away from their longstanding allegiance to Democrats, as per NYT.
However, Trump has not provided a clear plan for how he would help bring the conflict to a close, but he has repeatedly suggested he supports Israel using greater force in Gaza.
Trump — who is a staunch supporter of Israel and often calls himself the strongest ally of the country to serve in the White House — has been critical of Israel since it launched its military effort, taking issue with the fact that Israel has shared footage of the destruction in Gaza, according to the New York Times.
“Israel has to handle their public relations. Their public relations are not good,” he said on Thursday. “And they’ve got to get this done fast because the world — the world is not taking lightly to it. It’s really incredible.”
Notably, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s office had warned of possible protests outside of the Friday meeting, but there was little activity observed in the area amid beefed up security in wake of assassination attempt against the former president.
A small group of protesters stood on the sidewalk of a bridge that leads to Mar-a-Lago, carrying Palestinian flags and calling for the end of the conflict. Most of the signs referenced the conflict in general terms, but one specifically remarked on Friday’s meeting, reading: “Convicted felon meets war criminal,” the NYT reported.
Notably, Trump and Netanyahu shared close ties during the former’s tenure as US President, but their relationship was strained after Netanyahu congratulated Biden on winning the 2020 presidential election, which Trump continues to claim he won.
Days after Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel in October, Trump criticised Netanyahu and Israeli intelligence officials as being poorly prepared. But, since then, he has retreated from those criticisms.
He also thanked Netanyahu for mentioning him in his address to Congress on Wednesday. Netanyahu joins a handful of global leaders who have met with Trump during his third presidential campaign.
Trump has met twice with Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, a right-wing leader with whom he shares anti-immigration and populist views. Earlier, while standing trial in Manhattan in April, Trump hosted the right-wing president of Poland, Andrzej Duda, at Trump Tower, as reported by the New York Times.
Trump posted this week on Truth Social a letter he received from Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, after the assassination attempt against him at a Pennsylvania rally this month.
Abbas, writing the day after the shooting, said that he had “grave concern” after seeing footage of the incident, adding that he believed “differences must be resolved through communication” rather than violence.
In his post sharing the letter, Trump wrote “Looking forward to seeing Bibi Netanyahu on Friday, and even more forward to achieving Peace in the Middle East!”
Earlier on Thursday, Netanyahu met US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. He also addressed the joint session of US Congress on Wednesday.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is currently on a visit to the United States. This visit has come at a contentious time, when Israel is engaged in a massive conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, where over 39,000 Palestinians have been killed. (ANI)
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