Politics Israel: Netanyahu comes to the White House at Trump's invitation

SDA

28.1.2025 - 20:14

ARCHIVE - Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump (l) meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Photo: Alex Brandon/AP/dpa/Archive image
ARCHIVE - Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump (l) meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Photo: Alex Brandon/AP/dpa/Archive image
Keystone

According to his office, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House next week. Trump has invited him for February 4, according to a statement. The White House has not yet confirmed the meeting.

Keystone-SDA

Netanyahu could thus be the first head of government from abroad to be received by Trump as president. Netanyahu's office also emphasized this in the press release. Such an invitation right at the start of Trump's term of office is a strong gesture of support for the right-wing prime minister, who has come under heavy international criticism for his conduct of the war in the Gaza Strip.

The USA is Israel's most important ally. Trump's predecessor Joe Biden stood by Israel despite increasing criticism of its actions in Gaza, but the tone towards Netanyahu's government became harsher. Trump, on the other hand, is known as a close ally of Netanyahu.

Trump's Israel policy in his first term of office

Trump had already made a number of unilaterally pro-Israeli decisions in his first term of office (2017 to 2021). At the time, his administration recognized Israel's claim to the occupied Golan Heights as well as Jerusalem as Israel's capital. The USA moved its embassy there under Trump. In 2020, Trump also initiated the so-called Abraham Accords to normalize relations between Israel and several Arab states - a historic breakthrough at the time.

First steps in his second term of office

Trump also expressed his support for Netanyahu in the first days of his second term of office. For example, he released the delivery of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel, which had been withheld by Biden. Last year, the Biden administration had halted a delivery of the heavy bombs out of concern that they could be used in populated areas in the sealed-off Gaza Strip.

After taking office again, Trump also lifted sanctions against radical Israeli settlers in the West Bank that had been imposed by Biden's government. Since the Hamas massacre, there had been an increase in violence by settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Shortly before the change of power in Washington, Israel and the Islamist Hamas had agreed on a temporary ceasefire after months of wrangling, mediated by the USA, Egypt and Qatar. Trump also presents this as his achievement - and his harsh threats to Hamas may indeed have had a certain effect.

Controversial idea from Trump

Trump recently caused outrage with a controversial idea - and only received support from far-right Israeli politicians: he spoke out in favor of evacuating the largely destroyed Gaza Strip and housing the Palestinians living there in Arab countries. He wanted Egypt and Jordan to take in people, Trump said at the weekend. He was talking about one and a half million people. The area should be thoroughly "cleaned up".

Terrorists from Hamas and other extremist groups had taken more than 250 Israelis hostage in the Gaza Strip during their attack on Israel, in which around 1,200 people were killed. The raid triggered the war in the sealed-off coastal area, where more than 47,100 people have since been killed, according to the Hamas-controlled health authority. The figure does not distinguish between civilians and fighters.

Since the beginning of the war, the coastal strip has been heavily destroyed. The UN still regards it as Israeli-occupied territory because Israel exercises control there. Palestinian representatives warned and condemned Trump's statement.