JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with former President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Friday in an effort to repair fractured relations.
After President Biden defeated President Trump in the 2020 presidential election, Prime Minister Netanyahu congratulated President-elect Biden, who reportedly criticized the Israeli leader and said he “hasn’t spoken to him since then.” Released from the interview He met with Israeli journalist Barak Ravid, to which Trump added: “He’s a piece of shit.”
“Congratulations to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris! Joe, we have enjoyed a long, warm personal relationship for nearly 40 years, and I know you as a great friend of Israel,” Prime Minister Netanyahu wrote on Twitter. “I look forward to working with you both to further strengthen the special alliance between the United States and Israel.”
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President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attend the signing ceremony of the Abraham Accords on the South Lawn of the White House on September 15, 2020. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon/File)
Netanyahu is currently working to repair his relationship with President Trump, who he praised in a parliamentary speech on Thursday for his work in the Middle East.
“I want to thank President Trump for his leadership in brokering the historic Abraham Accords. Israelis, like Americans, are relieved that President Trump has emerged safe from the vile attack against him and against American democracy. There is no place in a democracy for political violence,” the Israeli leader said.
President Trump and his Middle East team brokered the Abraham Accords, a series of diplomatic normalization deals between Israel and the Sunni Arab countries of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.
Netanyahu continued in his speech: “I also want to thank President Trump for all he has done for Israel, from recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, to standing up to Iranian aggression, to recognizing Jerusalem as our nation’s capital and relocating the U.S. Embassy there. That is Jerusalem, our eternal capital, which will never be divided again.”
Michael Makovsky, president and CEO of the Jewish Institute for National Security, told Fox News Digital: “It would be incredibly important for both of them, and for the United States and Israel, that Prime Minister Netanyahu and Trump have a very positive meeting tomorrow, and I am confident that they will. The two men had a close relationship when Trump was president, but Trump has since expressed his displeasure with Netanyahu on several occasions. Yet Trump knows that the Republican base is very pro-Israel, the latest example being the Republican standing ovation yesterday during Netanyahu’s speech to Congress.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to parliament. (Getty Images)
“Trump is concerned about Biden’s shift in Israel policy this year and [Vice President] “Kamala Harris’s views on Israel are fundamentally pro-Israel to Trump’s,” Makovsky said. “And Netanyahu understands very well that strong U.S. public and private support is crucial to Israel’s ability to deal with many of the post-October 7 threats in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, and elsewhere, as well as to any possible normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia. And if Trump is re-elected, they’ll need to have a close personal connection, which is crucial to Trump. Either way, a close U.S. relationship with Israel is crucial to U.S. national security interests.”
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A new chapter in the relationship between President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu already appears to be beginning, with President Trump welcoming the Israeli prime minister’s recognition of his Middle East diplomacy breakthroughs.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu was very gracious to me yesterday, he mentioned me very graciously in his speech and I appreciate him coming to see me,” Trump told “Fox & Friends” on Thursday.
But the former president warned Israel’s leaders that they needed to move quickly in waging the war against Hamas, which the United States has designated a terrorist organization, saying: “We want it to end quickly. It has to end quickly because Hamas is being decimated by this propaganda. And, you know, Israel is not very good at public relations.”
On October 9, 2023, an explosion occurred in Gaza City during an Israeli airstrike. (Sameh Rahmi/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Trump also said that the October 7 massacre by Hamas in southern Israel of some 1,200 people, including more than 30 Americans, would not have happened if he had been re-elected in 2020. “The massacre on October 7th would not have happened if I was president. There was no chance of it happening. Iran would be bankrupt and could not afford to fund Hamas or Hezbollah. It would not have happened. There was no chance of it happening.”
Trump said the nine-month war in Gaza to root out Hamas terrorists was dragging on. “I want it to end. It has to end. It can’t go on like this. It’s been too long. We’ve gone too far. We’ve got to get our hostages back.”
Hamas continues to hold more than 100 hostages in the Gaza Strip, including eight Americans.
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“This is a very difficult time for a foreign leader to come to the United States, and he responded appropriately by seeking a meeting with Biden, Harris and Trump,” Richard Goldberg, who served on the National Security Council during the Trump administration, told Fox News Digital.
“I think we’ll probably see a return to what best promotes security, stability and peace – maximum pressure on Iran and maximum support for Israel,” added Goldberg, now a senior adviser to the Washington, DC-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Fox News’ Caitlin McFaul contributed to this report.
