Former US President Donald Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, the first such meeting between the two men since Trump left the White House more than three years ago,
CNN reports.
The meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence was requested by Netanyahu, sources familiar with the planning told CNN. It comes on the heels of the prime minister’s address to Congress and meetings with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House. Harris, now the presumptive Democratic nominee, conveyed a forcefulness on civilian suffering and ending the war following her time with the prime minister.
Netanyahu said Friday that he hoped Harris’ comments would not make a ceasefire deal harder to reach.
“I think to the extent that Hamas understands there’s no daylight between Israel and the United States, that expedites the deal,” said Netanyahu to reporters at his meeting with Trump. “And I would hope that those comments don’t change that.”
Trump said Harris was “disrespectful to Israel” in her remarks to reporters after her meeting with Netanyahu.
“I think her remarks were disrespectful,” Trump told CNN’s Kristen Holmes on Friday. “They weren’t very nice pertaining to Israel. I actually don’t know how a person who is Jewish could vote for her, but that’s up to them.”
Ahead of Netanyahu’s remarks, Harris’ office rejected on Friday the suggestion originally from a senior Israeli official that the vice president’s remarks could have made a ceasefire deal harder to reach.
“I don’t know what they’re talking about,” a Harris aide told CNN, in response to a senior Israeli official being quoted in The Times of Israel.
“President Biden and Vice President Harris delivered the same message in their private meetings to Prime Minister Netanyahu: it is time to get the ceasefire and hostage deal done,” the aide to the vice president told reporters, adding that Harris’ meeting with Netanyahu was “serious and collegial.”
Trump elaborated on his own meeting with Netanyahu while continuing to slam Harris during a speech in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Friday night.
“She doesn’t like Jewish people. She doesn’t like Israel. That’s the way it is, and that’s the way it’s always gonna be,” Trump said. Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff is Jewish.
The former president said he asked Netanyahu during their meeting how a Jewish person can vote Democrat.
“I said, ‘How can a Jewish person or a person that loves Israel vote, think of this, vote for this, these parties?’ How can they vote Democrat? How can they vote for these horrible, these horrible people?”
“We came to the conclusion, it’s mostly habit,” Trump said.
