Netanyahu meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago
The Israeli prime minister has shared photos and a short video of his arrival at the former US president’s estate in Florida.
In the video, Netanyahu hands Trump a framed photo of an Israeli child he said was being held in Gaza.
“We’ll get that taken care of,” Trump, who is seeking the White House again in November’s US election, replied.
בפגישה עם נשיא ארה״ב לשעבר, דונלד טראמפ 🇺🇸🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/mfXt0vfiPp
— Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) July 26, 2024
Trump seeking to present himself as peace-builder in Netanyahu talks
Donald Trump had to have this photo opportunity to project the fact that he could also be the man in the White House dealing with Prime Minister Netanyahu in just a few months’ time.
We had been told that this would be a closed meeting, but obviously because it’s such a big PR opportunity for Donald Trump and for Mr Netanyahu, those images, those videos, have been coming through, where we saw them at that table talking.
Remember, Donald Trump is trying to project himself as the man who will bring about world peace and peace in the Middle East.
For Netanyahu, this is a very strong relationship that he needs to bring back online because if Donald Trump does come back to the White House, he is going to be Israel’s main protector, main arms supplier.
Trump’s word on peace process holds little weight: Democratic strategist
Richard Goodstein says people should put little faith in Trump’s claims he could be a peace-builder in the Middle East.
“When Trump says he’s a man of peace; I don’t really know who assigns weight to what Donald Trump has to say about pretty much anything,” the Democratic strategist told Al Jazeera.
Trump, whose administration brokered the so-called Abraham Accords between Israel and Arab states during his time in office, has argued that Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel would never have happened under his watch.
But Goodstein noted that the former US president said during last month’s presidential debate that Israel needs to “finish the job” in Gaza. “That sounds like he means, level Gaza entirely,” he said.
And in an interview with FOX News this week, Trump said Israel needed to move faster to end the war, if only to repair its “public relations” problem.
“Again, I would think twice before I would put too much weight into anything that Donald Trump has to say about the peace process,” Goodstein added.
