Netanyahu ends US trip with Trump meeting as pressure grows to 'finish up' Gaza war

The Republican presidential nominee affirmed his good relationship with the Israeli prime minister in their first meeting since Trump left the White House

News Desk - The Cradle 

Then-US President Donald Trump, right, meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, September 15, 2020. (Photo credit: AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on 26 July he has a good relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that he would finish Israel’s war on Gaza quickly if elected US president in November.

Trump made the comments after meeting with the Israeli prime minister on Friday at the former US president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

“If we win, it’ll be very simple, it’ll all work out and very quickly,” Trump told reporters.

Trump had urged Netanyahu to end the war during an interview with Fox News on Thursday, the day before their meeting. “I want him to finish up and get it done quickly,” Trump said.

Netanyahu has resisted international pressure to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas that would bring home the roughly 70 remaining Israelis held captive by Hamas in Gaza and see the release of hundreds or even thousands of Palestinians held captive and tortured in Israeli jails.

Israel has faced criticism of its war on Gaza based on its massacre of over 39,000 Palestinians, the majority women and children, and displacing almost two million others.

However, Trump has criticized Netanyahu’s handling of the war for other reasons.

The war should end fast “because they are getting decimated with this publicity, and you know Israel is not very good at public relations,” Trump said during an interview with Fox News.

Vice President Kamala Harris also encouraged Netanyahu to end the war during her Thursday meeting with the prime minister.

“Let’s get the deal done so we can get a ceasefire to end the war,” said Harris, now the Democratic Party’s expected presidential nominee.

Trump’s Friday meeting with Netanyahu was the first between the two men since Trump left the Oval Office in January 2021.

As president, Trump was close with Netanyahu and strongly supported Israel. Trumped moved the US embassy to occupied Jerusalem, helped Israel normalize relations with several Arab countries under the Abraham Accords, and withdrew the US from the nuclear deal with Israel’s main enemy, Iran.

But Trump was allegedly angered after Netanyahu swiftly embraced US President Joe Biden following the 2020 election, which Trump says was stolen from him.

In an interview with Axios in April 2021, Trump said he was disappointed in Netanyahu, accused him of disloyalty, and said: “F**k him.”

However, on Friday, Trump claimed at the beginning of the meeting that he had never had a bad relationship with Netanyahu. “We have always had good relations,” he said.

During the prime minister’s speech to the US Congress on Wednesday, which was the main purpose of his trip, Netanyahu praised both Biden and Trump’s support for Israel amid lengthy and repeated applause from Congressional members.