Trump meets Netanyahu a day after saying the war must end because it damages Israel’s image International

Former US President Donald Trump met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this Friday, the first meeting between the two leaders since the Republican candidate left the White House to run for re-election in January 2021. The meeting, which took place at Trump’s residence in Mar-a-Lago (Florida), was requested by Netanyahu, sources familiar with the agenda told CNN. It was the culmination of the visit of the head of the Israeli government to the United States – the first since the start of the war, on October 7 – following a speech before Congress in which he defended his management of the offensive against Gaza, and separate meetings with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House. At the end of the meeting, which was attended by advisers from both sides, Trump assured that he had always maintained a “very good relationship” with his guest and with Netanyahu, that Israel would send a team of negotiators to Rome for ceasefire talks “possibly at the beginning of the week”.

Trump also described as “outrageous” the statements made a day earlier by the candidate for the Democratic nomination, in which he delivered a strong message about the suffering of Palestinian civilians and the need for an immediate ceasefire to end the war. In a very different tone and for a different reason – without making a single reference to the victims or the dire humanitarian crisis in the Strip – the Republican candidate had a day earlier in a Fox News interview called on Israel to “end it (the war) quickly.” “It can’t go on like this. It’s been too long. It’s too much,” he said.

“Israel has to take care of its public relations. Their public relations are not good,” he said on Fox, “and they have to do it quickly because the world is not taking this lightly. It’s really unbelievable,” he stressed, adding that this is more due to a bad image than to considerations such as the suffering of the population of the Palestinian enclave. In his acceptance speech for the Republican nomination for the White House last week in Milwaukee, Trump assured that if he had been president instead of Joe Biden, the Gaza war would not have started and expressed his desire to end it quickly.

Trump has not presented a clear plan for how he would help end the conflict, instead criticizing the Democratic administration for failing to do so. He has suggested several times that he would support Israel’s use of more force in Gaza, in line with the aggressive tone of Netanyahu’s speech to Congress, in which he called for “more weapons to be taken out faster” with Hamas.

Trump’s desire to end the war in Ukraine and Gaza in one fell swoop if he is elected in November is in contrast to Netanyahu’s reported anger at Harris’ statements to the press after Harris’ 40-minute interview at the White House on Thursday. The Israeli prime minister fears that the words of Biden’s virtual successor on the Democratic nomination will harm the negotiations on Gaza, an Israeli official told the press on condition of anonymity. Since the beginning of the conflict, Netanyahu has given different reasons for the possible derailment of the talks promoted by Washington, such as the aforementioned rigidity of Harris when speaking on the conflict.

Netanyahu is the second foreign leader to meet Trump in just two weeks, after the visit of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, which has greatly upset the European Union. The meeting was an opportunity for both to re-evaluate their relationship at a crucial moment: the open criticism against Israel for its management of the war and Biden’s withdrawal from the surprise 2024 electoral campaign. Trump once boasted of his close personal relationship with Netanyahu, as he recalled this Friday. In open competition with Biden, whom Netanyahu defined on Wednesday in front of Congress as “a proud Zionist”, he also claims to be Israel’s closest ally to pass through the White House, although a few days after October 7 he criticized the poor preparation of the Israeli intelligence services (he has since retracted those criticisms). With the reception of Netanyahu, Trump also re-validated his relationship with Israel, as part of his effort to dissuade Jewish Americans from their former willingness to vote for the Democrats.

In an attempt to divert attention, about fifty pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered at the entrance of the magnate’s mansion, closely watched by a police cordon, in anticipation of a massive protest in front of Congress on Wednesday, which Netanyahu blamed on Iran. There were also some demonstrations by citizens with flags bearing the Star of David.

Follow all international updates Facebook And Xor in Our weekly newsletter,