Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has visited former United States President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida for talks that might ease tensions between the 2 leaders.
Netanyahu met Trump, the Republican candidate in November’s presidential election, on Friday, a day after Netanyahu met Democratic President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who is anticipated to run towards Trump.
The Florida assembly capped a weeklong US go to by Netanyahu that has been met with widespread protests, boycotts from US lawmakers and warnings from rights teams about Israel’s battle on Gaza.
Talking subsequent to Trump, Netanyahu mentioned Israel can be dispatching a negotiating group to debate a proposal for a Gaza ceasefire in Rome “most likely originally of the week”, based on pool reporters.
Netanyahu’s go to adopted an tackle to a joint session of the US Congress, a White Home assembly with Biden and a separate assembly with Harris.
Lengthy seen as adept at navigating shifting US political winds, Netanyahu’s closing US cease on the journey has extensively been seen as an effort to fix ties with Trump earlier than the November 5 election.
Trump, whose time period as president stretched from January 2017 to January 2021, took a permissive and transactional method to US-Israel ties that empowered Netanyahu’s authorities whereas largely sidelining Palestinian pursuits.
However Netanyahu’s acceptance of Biden’s victory within the 2020 presidential election whereas Trump claimed fraud noticed the relationship bitter.
“F*** him,” Trump mentioned of Netanyahu in an interview on the time.
“I nonetheless like Bibi,” he added. “However I additionally like loyalty.”
Earlier than Friday’s assembly, officers advised Israeli media that Netanyahu’s had already begun his attraction offensive, calling Trump for the primary time in years this month.
Throughout his speech to Congress, Netanyahu took explicit time to focus on a number of of Trump’s actions whereas in workplace, together with mediating the Abraham Accords, which noticed Israel set up ties with a number of Arab international locations, in addition to Trump’s choice to maneuver the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and recognise Israel’s declare to the Syrian-occupied Golan Heights.
Trump later thanked the Israeli chief throughout an interview on Fox Information.
Standing subsequent to Netanyahu on Friday, he maintained the pair “at all times had an excellent relationship”.
Conferences with Biden and Harris
After his tackle to Congress, Netanyahu met with Biden on the White Home, the place officers mentioned the US president pressed the Israeli chief on a US proposal for a Gaza ceasefire.
In line with Palestinian officers, at the least 39,175 individuals have been killed and 90,403 injured in Israel’s battle on Gaza, which started in October.
Israel launched the battle after the October 7 Hamas-led assaults on southern Israel killed at the least 1,139 individuals, based on an Al Jazeera tally based mostly on Israeli statistics. About 250 individuals have been taken captive in the course of the assaults.
Within the early days of the battle, Biden had embraced Netanyahu whereas giving little point out to Palestinian struggling. Whereas his administration has since taken a rhetorically harder line with Israeli officers, it has continued to supply political and weapons help to Israel.
This week, Amnesty Worldwide mentioned it was placing the US “on discover” that Israel had used weapons of US origin in battle crimes and it “shall be complicit in additional violations dedicated with these weapons”.
On Thursday, Netanyahu additionally met with Harris, who’s on monitor to formally grow to be the Democratic Occasion’s presidential nominee subsequent month after Biden’s shock announcement on Sunday that he would finish his re-election bid.
Many analysts noticed Harris’s feedback after the assembly as making an attempt to mediate the administration’s continued help for the battle with the home political fallout it has precipitated. She mentioned the battle was “not a binary difficulty”.
“We can’t look away within the face of those tragedies.We can’t enable ourselves to grow to be numb to the struggling. And I can’t be silent,” she mentioned, whereas persevering with to pledge help for Israel.
“To everybody who has been calling for a ceasefire and to everybody who yearns for peace, I see you, and I hear you,” she mentioned.
The statements, seen as extra firmly foregrounding the civilian toll of the battle than earlier messages from the Biden administration, have been met with a swift rebuke from Netanyahu’s far-right allies in Israel.
“Madam candidate, there shall be no cessation of hostilities,” Nationwide Safety Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote on X.
