PALM BEACH: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited former US President Donald Trump at Trump’s Florida resort on Friday for a meeting that could ease tensions between two leaders who forged a close alliance during Trump’s years in the White House.
Netanyahu met Trump, the Republican nominee in the 2024 US presidential race, a day after Netanyahu met Democratic President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running against Trump in the Nov. 5 US election.
The longtime Israeli leader rearranged his US travel schedule to meet Trump. He landed in Palm Beach early on Friday.
Opinion polls put Harris and Trump in a close race for the White House, prompting world leaders like Netanyahu, traditionally more aligned with Trump’s Republicans than Biden’s Democrats, to strike a balance in dealings with the US.
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Nine months into an Israeli offensive in Gaza, Harris pressed Netanyahu on the suffering of Palestinians in the enclave in talks that were watched for signs of how she might shift American policy if she becomes president.
“I made clear my serious concern about the dire humanitarian situation there,” Harris said on Thursday after the meeting. “I will not be silent.”
“Israel has a right to defend itself. And how it does so matters,” she said.
Israeli officials criticized Harris for saying it was time for the war to end.
In an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Trump called for a quick end to the war and a return of the hostages Hamas holds in Gaza, adding that Israel has to better manage its “public relations.”
“I want him (Netanyahu) to finish up and get it done quickly,” Trump said. “They are getting decimated with this publicity.”
Trump also criticized those who protested a speech Netanyahu gave to the US Congress on Wednesday.
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