Former President Donald Trump vowed to secure peace in the Middle East if he wins the next election and pledged to address anti-Semitism that is rising in America. Following his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump issued a statement as follows: In light of the "atrocious" attack on October 7, he praised Israel and reaffirmed his commitment to work tirelessly, if re-elected to a second term as President, to further peace in the region and to combat anti-Semitism, especially on American college campuses.
The Trump campaign highlighted the appreciation expressed by Netanyahu toward the administration of the former President for its many accomplishments. These include the Abraham Accords, moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem, acknowledgement of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, the killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, and withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear Deal. He was killed in a 2020 US drone strike when he was the commander of the Iranian Quds Force.
Trump hosted Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, with a video of their meeting shared on Truth Social, his personal social media platform.
The relationship between Trump and Netanyahu reaches all the way back to his first term, highlighted by his very controversial decision to transfer the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as had long been requested by Israel to recognize Jerusalem as its capital notwithstanding Palestinian claims. Trump supported Israel's grip on the Golan Heights, land captured from Syria in the 1967 war, and he presided over the so-called Abraham Accords that resulted in normalized relations between Israel and Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
But things began to sour in January 2021 when Netanyahu was quick to send a message of congratulations to President Joe Biden, whose victory over Trump is still disputed by the former president.
As a dyed-in-the-wool observer of US politics, it is not the first time that Netanyahu has injected himself into the American political debate. Recently, he crossed swords with Biden over military aid to Israel and, apparently, prepares the ground for an eventual comeback of Trump to the presidency—an eventuality under contemplation in many an international circle.
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