WASHINGTON (AP) — A beaming Donald Trump welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to their first face-to-face meeting in nearly four years on Friday…
A beaming Donald Trump welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to their first face-to-face meeting in nearly four years on Friday, patching up a political alliance important to both men that had broken down when the Israeli leader offended Trump by being one of the first to congratulate Joe Biden on his 2020 presidential victory.
Asked by journalists if his U.S. trip was making progress toward a Gaza cease-fire at home, Netanyahu said, “I hope so,” and added that Israel was eager for an agreement.
Netanyahu handed Trump a framed photo that the Israeli leader said showed a child who has been held hostage by Hamas-led militants since the first hours of the war. “We’ll get it taken care of,” Trump assured him.
Trump’s campaign said he pledged in the meeting to “make every effort to bring peace to the Middle East” and combat antisemitism on college campuses if American voters elect him to the presidency in November.
Trump was waiting for Netanyahu on the stone steps outside his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, where he warmly clasped the hands of the Israeli leader. Both men have a strong interest in resuming their relationship, including for the political support and luster their alliance brings.
“We’ve always had a great relationship,” Trump insisted before journalists. Asked as the two sat down in a muraled room for talks if Netanyahu’s trip to Mar-a-Lago was repairing their bond, Trump responded, “It was never bad.”
As president, Donald Trump went well beyond his predecessors in fulfilling Netanyahu’s top wishes from the United States. Yet by the time Trump left the White House, relations had soured, with Trump publicly criticizing Netanyahu as disloyal despite the other man’s efforts to mend ties.
For both men, Friday’s meeting was aimed at highlighting for their home audiences in the United States and Israel their depiction of themselves as strong leaders who have gotten big things done on the world stage, and can again.
Netanyahu’s Florida trip followed a fiery address to a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday that defended his far-right government’s conduct of the war and condemned American protesters galvanized by the killing of more than 39,000 Palestinians in the conflict.
