Former president Donald Trump, right, meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office, on Sept. 15, 2020, at the White House in Washington.Alex Brandon/The Associated Press
A beaming Donald Trump welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to their first face-to-face meeting in nearly four years on Friday, patching up a political alliance important to both men that had broken down when the Israeli leader offended Mr. Trump by being one of the first to congratulate Joe Biden on his 2020 presidential victory.
Asked by journalists if his U.S. trip was making progress toward a Gaza ceasefire at home, Mr. Netanyahu said, “I hope so,” and added that Israel was eager for an agreement.
Mr. Netanyahu handed Mr. Trump a framed photo that the Israeli leader said showed a child who has been held hostage by Hamas-led militants since the first hours of the war. “We’ll get it taken care of,” Mr. Trump assured him.
Mr. Trump’s campaign said he pledged in the meeting to “make every effort to bring peace to the Middle East” and combat antisemitism on college campuses if American voters elect him to the presidency in November.
Mr. Trump was waiting for Mr. Netanyahu on the stone steps outside his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, where he warmly clasped the hands of the Israeli leader. Both men have a strong interest in resuming their relationship, including for the political support and lustre their alliance brings.
“We’ve always had a great relationship,” Mr. Trump insisted before journalists. Asked as the two sat down in a muraled room for talks if Mr. Netanyahu’s trip to Mar-a-Lago was repairing their bond, Mr. Trump responded, “It was never bad.”
As president, Mr. Trump went well beyond his predecessors in fulfilling Mr. Netanyahu’s top wishes from the United States. Yet by the time he left the White House, relations had soured, with Mr. Trump publicly criticizing Netanyahu as disloyal despite the other man’s efforts to mend ties.
For both men, Friday’s meeting was aimed at highlighting for their home audiences in the United States and Israel their depiction of themselves as strong leaders who have gotten big things done on the world stage, and can again.
Mr. Netanyahu’s Florida trip followed a fiery address to a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday that defended his far-right government’s conduct of the war and condemned American protesters galvanized by the killing of more than 39,000 Palestinians in the conflict.
On Thursday, Mr. Netanyahu had met in Washington with Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Both pressed the Israeli leader to work quickly to wrap up a deal to bring a ceasefire and release hostages.
Mr. Netanyahu is increasingly accused at home of prolonging the war to stave off the collapse of his government when the conflict ends.
For Mr. Trump, now the Republican presidential nominee, the meeting was a chance to be cast as an ally and statesman, as well as to sharpen efforts by Republicans to portray themselves as the party most loyal to Israel.
Divisions among Americans over U.S. support for Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza have opened cracks in years of strong bipartisan backing for Israel, the biggest recipient of U.S. aid.
For Mr. Netanyahu, repairing relations with Mr. Trump is imperative given the prospect that he may once again become president of the United States, which is Israel’s vital arms supplier and protector.
One political gamble for Mr. Netanyahu is whether he could get more of the terms he wants in any deal on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release, and in his much hoped-for closing of a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia, if he waits out the Biden administration in hopes that Mr. Trump wins.
“Benjamin Netanyahu has spent much of his career in the last two decades in tethering himself to the Republican Party,” said Aaron David Miller, a former U.S. diplomat for Arab-Israeli negotiations, now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
For the next six months, that means “mending ties with an irascible, angry president,” Mr. Miller said, meaning Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump broke off with Mr. Netanyahu in early 2021. That was after the Israeli prime minister became one of the first world leaders to congratulate Mr. Biden for his presidential election victory, disregarding Mr. Trump’s false claim he had won.
“Bibi could have stayed quiet,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with an Israel newspaper back then. “He made a terrible mistake.”
Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Trump last met at a September 2020 White House signing ceremony for the signature diplomatic achievement of both men’s political careers. It was an accord brokered by the Trump administration in which the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain agreed to establish normal diplomatic relations with Israel.
For Israel, it amounted to the two countries formally recognizing it for the first time. It was a major step in what Israel hopes will be an easing of tensions and a broadening of economic ties with its Arab neighbours.
In public postings and statements after his break with Mr, Netanyahu, Mr. Trump portrayed himself as having stuck his neck out for Israel as president, and Mr. Netanyahu paying him back with disloyalty.
He also has criticized Mr. Netanyahu on other points, faulting him as “not prepared” for the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks that started the war in Gaza, for example.
In his high-profile speech to Congress on Wednesday, Mr. Netanyahu gave recognition to Mr. Biden, who has kept up military and diplomatic support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza despite opposition from within his Democratic Party.
But Mr. Netanyahu poured praise on Mr. Trump, calling the regional accords Mr. Trump helped broker historic and thanking him “for all the things he did for Israel.”
Mr. Netanyahu listed actions by the Trump administration long-sought by Israeli governments – the U.S. officially saying Israel had sovereignty over the Golan Heights, captured from Syria during a 1967 war; a tougher U.S. policy toward Iran; and Trump declaring Jerusalem the capital of Israel, breaking with longstanding U.S. policy that Jerusalem’s status should be decided in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
“I appreciated that,” Mr. Trump told Fox & Friends on Thursday, referring to Mr. Netanyahu’s praise.
He didn’t quiet his criticism, however, of Israel’s conduct of the war, which has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians.
“I want him to finish up and get it done quickly. You gotta get it done quickly, because they are getting decimated with his publicity,” Mr. Trump said in Thursday’s interview.
“Israel is not very good at public relations, I’ll tell you that,” he added.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly urged that Israel with U.S. support “finish the job” in Gaza and destroy Hamas, but he hasn’t elaborated on how.