Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited former US President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida for talks that could ease tensions between the two leaders.
Netanyahu met with Trump, the Republican candidate in November’s presidential election, on Friday, a day after Netanyahu met with Democratic President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who is expected to run against Trump.
The meeting in Florida capped a week-long visit by Netanyahu to the US that was met with widespread protests, boycotts from US lawmakers and warnings from rights groups about Israel’s war in Gaza.
Speaking alongside Trump, Netanyahu said Israel would send a negotiating team to discuss a proposed Gaza ceasefire in Rome “probably early in the week,” according to reporters from the group.
Netanyahu’s visit followed a speech to a joint session of the US Congress, a White House meeting with Biden and a separate meeting with Harris.
Long seen as an expert at navigating the shifting U.S. political winds, Netanyahu’s final U.S. stop on the trip was widely seen as an effort to mend ties with Trump ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
Trump, whose term as president extended from January 2017 to January 2021, adopted a permissive and transactional approach to US-Israel ties that strengthened Netanyahu’s government while largely marginalizing Palestinian interests.
But Netanyahu’s acceptance of Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election, while Trump alleged fraud, soured the relationship.
“Fuck him,” Trump said of Netanyahu in an interview at the time.
“I still like Bibi,” he added. “But I also like loyalty.”
Before Friday’s meeting, officials told Israeli media that Netanyahu had already begun his charm offensive, calling Trump for the first time in years this month.
During his address to Congress, Netanyahu took special time to highlight several of Trump’s actions while in office, including the mediation of the Abraham Accords, which allowed Israel to establish ties with several Arab countries, as well as Trump’s decision to transfer the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and recognize Israel’s claim to the Syrian-occupied Golan Heights.
Trump later thanked the Israeli leader during an interview with Fox News.
Standing alongside Netanyahu on Friday, he stated that the pair “always had a very good relationship.”
Meetings with Biden and Harris
After his speech to Congress, Netanyahu met with Biden at the White House, where officials said the US president pressed the Israeli leader on a US proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza.
According to Palestinian officials, at least 39,175 people were killed and 90,403 injured in Israel’s war on Gaza, which began in October.
Israel launched the war after Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks in southern Israel killed at least 1,139 people, according to an Al Jazeera tally based on Israeli statistics. Around 250 people were taken prisoner during the attacks.
In the early days of the war, Biden embraced Netanyahu, making little mention of Palestinian suffering. Although his administration has since adopted a rhetorically tougher line with Israeli authorities, he has continued to provide political and military support to Israel.
This week, Amnesty International said it was warning the US that Israel had used US-origin weapons in war crimes and that it “will be complicit in further violations committed with these weapons”.
On Thursday, Netanyahu also met with Harris, who is on track to officially become the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee next month following Biden’s surprise announcement on Sunday that he would end his re-election bid.
Many analysts viewed Harris’s comments after the meeting as an attempt to mediate the administration’s continued support for the war with the domestic political fallout it caused. She said war was “not a binary issue.”
“We cannot look away from these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become insensitive to suffering. And I will not remain silent,” she said, continuing to pledge support for Israel.
“To all who have been calling for a ceasefire and to all who yearn for peace, I see you and I hear you,” she said.
The statements, seen as a firmer highlighting of the war’s civilian cost than previous messages from the Biden administration, were met with a swift rebuke from Netanyahu’s far-right allies in Israel.
“Madam candidate, there will be no cessation of hostilities”, wrote the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, in X.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
