Netanyahu meets Trump, capping US trip marked by Gaza protests

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has visited former United States President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida for talks as Trump dismissed any suggestion of tensions between the pair.

Netanyahu met Trump, the Republican candidate in November’s presidential election, on Friday, a day after Netanyahu met Democratic President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who is expected to run against Trump.

The meeting capped a weeklong US visit by Netanyahu that has been met with widespread protests, boycotts from US lawmakers and warnings from rights groups about Israel’s war on Gaza.

Trump greeted Netanyahu and his wife Sara and criticised Harris, who had voiced concern in public comments after meeting the Israeli leader about the toll on Palestinian civilians from Israel’s assault on the besieged territory.

“I think her remarks were disrespectful,” Trump said.

Netanyahu said Israel would be dispatching a negotiating team to discuss a proposal for a Gaza ceasefire in Rome “probably at the beginning of the week”, according to pool reporters.

He said he thought there had been movement in efforts to forge a ceasefire because of Israeli military pressure.

Trump dismissed any suggestion of tensions with Netanyahu, saying the pair had “always had a very good relationship”.

Netanyahu’s visit followed an address to a joint session of the US Congress, a White House meeting with Biden and a separate meeting with Harris.

Long seen as adept at navigating shifting US political winds, Netanyahu’s final US stop on the trip has widely been viewed as an effort to mend ties with Trump before the November 5 election.

Trump, whose term as president stretched from January 2017 to January 2021, took a permissive and transactional approach to US-Israel ties that empowered Netanyahu’s government while largely sidelining Palestinian interests.

But Netanyahu’s acceptance of Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election while Trump claimed fraud saw the relationship sour.

“F*** 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’s had already begun his charm offensive, calling Trump for the first time in years this month.

During his speech to Congress, Netanyahu took particular time to highlight several of Trump’s actions while in office, including mediating the Abraham Accords, which saw Israel establish ties with several Arab countries, as well as Trump’s decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and recognise Israel’s claim to the Syrian-occupied Golan Heights.

Trump later thanked the Israeli leader during an interview on Fox News.

Meetings with Biden and Harris

After his address 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 Gaza ceasefire.

According to Palestinian officials, at least 39,175 people have been killed and 90,403 injured in Israel’s war on Gaza, which began in October.

Israel launched the war after the October 7 Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel killed at least 1,139 people, according to an Al Jazeera tally based on Israeli statistics. About 250 people were taken captive during the attacks.

In the early days of the war, Biden had embraced Netanyahu while giving little mention to Palestinian suffering. While his administration has since taken a rhetorically tougher line with Israeli officials, it has continued to provide political and weapons support to Israel.

This week, Amnesty International said it was putting the US “on notice” that Israel had used weapons of US origin in war crimes and 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 after Biden’s surprise announcement on Sunday that he would end his re-election bid.

Many analysts saw Harris’s comments after the meeting as trying to mediate the administration’s continued support for the war with the domestic political fallout it has caused. She said the war was “not a binary issue”.

“We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies.We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering. And I will not be silent,” she said, while continuing to pledge support for Israel.

“To everyone who has been calling for a ceasefire and to everyone who yearns for peace, I see you, and I hear you,” she said.

The statements, seen as more firmly foregrounding the civilian toll of the war 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,” National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote on X.