President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been friends for a very long time.
The media has tried to present this relationship as currently frayed due to emerging political differences. Trump, however, is working to put those claims to rest, fully backing the prime minister after the pair's meeting at Mar-a-Lago this week.
Not only that, but much to the chagrin of the Democrat Party, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) is once again publicly backing Trump’s position on Israel.
Going back to May, there was speculation that the relationship between Trump and Netanyahu had become strained due to Israel’s position in its war with Hamas.
One report stated, “Experts say that Trump’s distance from Netanyahu has been visible since before the Middle East tour -- in particular since March, when Israel ended the ceasefire with Hamas that Trump and his envoy Steve Witkoff had helped broker.”
Now, Trump had openly criticized Netanyahu over some of his moves, but there never seemed to be any ill will between the two leaders.
At the time, I thought this reminded me more of two brothers fighting, but the media continued to pursue the narrative that Trump and Netanyahu were having a falling out.
Israel has been threatening to take action against Iran if it tries to rebuild its nuclear program, a situation that served as a way for Trump to express that he and Netanyahu are still on the same page.
When asked about Iran, Trump responded in a similar fashion to the Israeli PM, stating, “Now, I hear that Iran is trying to build up again, and if they are we’re going to have to knock them down. We’ll knock them down. We’ll knock the hell out of them. But hopefully that’s not happening.”
When Trump was asked directly whether he would support Israel striking Iran, he responded, “If they will continue with the missiles, yes. The nuclear, fast. One will be yes, absolutely, and the other we will do it immediately.”
Earlier in the day, Trump had also been asked about his relationship with Netanyahu, and he characterized it as being as good as it has ever been, and I have no reason to doubt that. As noted above, the so-called “rift” was more or less a brotherly spat that needed to be worked out.
The one Democrat Trump has been able to count on regarding Israel has been Fetterman, and he is backing Trump once more.
When he was asked this week about an Iranian redeployment of a nuclear program, Fetterman responded, "Iran can’t ever develop a nuclear weapon.”
He was also asked if he supported the previous strike against Iranian nuclear sites and any such future operations, and the Pennsylvania Democrat responded, "Fully supported the strike earlier this year. Fully support any future strikes to damage or destroy their nuclear ambitions.”
I think it is safe to say we can put this issue to rest for now. There is no rift between Trump and Netanyahu, and if Democrats think they can woo Fetterman away from his pro-Israel stance, they are sorely mistaken.
