Trump offers to visit Israel
Former US President Donald Trump has said that he may visit Israel in the near future. Trump's statement came after he harshly criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his apparent failure to predict Hamas’ attack on the Jewish state.
“I may, I may go,” Trump told reporters outside a courthouse in New York, where he is facing a civil fraud lawsuit.
“But I believe in letting them do what they have to do,” Trump continued, “They have to straighten it out. What’s happening in Israel is all of those people dead would have never happened… if I were president.”
During his term in the White House, Trump oversaw the relocation of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and the signing of the Abraham Accords, under which Israel normalized relations with Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates. Trump often touted his close personal relationship with Netanyahu, and described himself as “history’s most pro-Israel US president.”
That relationship has since deteriorated. Speaking to Fox News last week, Trump claimed that Netanyahu “was not prepared” for Hamas’ surprise attack. “He was not prepared, and Israel was not prepared,” Trump said, adding that the Israeli PM “has been hurt very badly because of what’s happened.”
At a campaign rally in Florida several days later, Trump said that Israel needs to “straighten out” its intelligence agencies, and that Netanyahu “let us down” by declining to participate in the 2020 airstrike that killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.
Trump’s comments about a potential trip to Israel came a day after President Joe Biden returned from the country. Biden met with Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, where he promised additional military aid to Israel, and cautioned the prime minister not to become “consumed with rage” in responding to the Hamas attack.
Israeli warplanes have been striking Gaza for almost two weeks, killing almost 3,800 Palestinians and wounding more than 12,000, according to the latest figures from the Palestinian Health Ministry. At least 1,300 Israelis have been killed in the same period, according to the Israeli military.
