Addressing around 200 reporters after an hour-long meeting with US President Donald Trump in the White House, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he is “honored” to be the first foreign leader invited to the White House,
The Times of Israel reports.
“You are the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House,” says Netanyahu, listing Trump’s policies toward Israel in his first term, including leaving the Iran nuclear deal, brokering the Abraham Accords, and moving the embassy to Jerusalem.
“You’ve picked up right where you left off,” he adds.
Addressing around 200 reporters after an hour-long meeting with US President Donald Trump in the White House, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he is “honored” to be the first foreign leader invited to the White House.
“You are the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House,” says Netanyahu, listing Trump’s policies toward Israel in his first term, including leaving the Iran nuclear deal, brokering the Abraham Accords, and moving the embassy to Jerusalem.
“You’ve picked up right where you left off,” he adds.
“Your leadership has brought hostages home,” says Netanyahu. He adds that Trump freed up munitions withheld by the previous administration, ended “unjust sanctions against Israeli citizens” — referring to sanctions on some settlers deemed extremist — “confronted antisemitism, stopped funding UNRWA, and renewed maximum pressure against Iran.”
All this has been done by Trump in just two weeks, he says. “Can you imagine where we’ll be in four years?”
Israel, says Netanyahu, has been changing the face of the Middle East since the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023.
“We have defeated some of America’s worst enemies. We took out terrorists that were wanted for decades for shedding rivers of American blood,” he says.
“Israel has never been stronger and the Iran terror axis has never been weaker,” he says.
But to secure Israel’s future and bring peace to the region, “We have to finish the job,” adds Netanyahu, laying out Israel’s goals in Gaza before resuming praise of Trump.
“Your willingness to puncture conventional thinking… to think outside the box, with fresh ideas, will help us achieve all of these goals,” Netanyahu says. “I’ve seen you do this many times. You cut to the chase. You see things others refuse to see. You say things others refuse to say. And after the jaws drop, people scratch their heads and say, ‘You know? He’s right’.”
“This is the kind of thinking that enabled us to bring the Abraham Accords,” says Netanyahu.
