Going back to the spring, the media has been painting a picture of a strained relationship between Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
I have never bought into that, regularly saying that these two can disagree without it hurting their longstanding ties.
Netanyahu just blew up the media's narrative, dismissing everything journalists have been reporting on this front.
In May, reports started to surface that all was not well with the two leaders.
For instance, NBC News reported, “But in recent weeks, the relationship between Trump and Netanyahu has become strained as the two leaders are increasingly at odds over a strategy for tackling these challenges now that Hamas has been significantly degraded and Iran weakened, according to two U.S. officials, two Middle Eastern diplomats and two other people with knowledge of the tensions.”
It later claimed, “The recent differences between the two leaders on key strategies and positions has put Trump’s relationship with one of America’s closest allies at a bit of a crossroads.”
Reports were flying around from basically every outlet, and as we all know, the media is now good for producing nothing more than multiple regurgitations of a single original story.
Netanyahu was in Florida to meet with Trump over the holiday week, which made Democrats nuts.
I saw post after post on social media of Democrats and liberal pundits going off over the fact that Trump was holding meetings at Mar-a-Lago, which I found amusing. What other president has actually worked during their Christmas holiday break?
Netanyahu then spoke to Fox News after their meeting, putting all the rumors to rest. He dismissed the supposed rift as nothing more than two different points of view, with both men trying to work through the details. He then added, "He cut right to the chase. He said, ‘Look, skip all this press stuff.' I mean, the real thing is, you have got to get Hamas to disarm. He just banged the nail on the head, you know."
He later stated, "I think there is a lot of daylight, because I think we both want to see a future in which that territory is not used for terrorist attacks. We have done a lot of things in that regard. We also want to build a lot of infrastructure there. Both for us and for our Palestinian neighbors, and I think there is a lot of room to talk about it."
Trump and Netanyahu both want to see the war ended with Hamas, but there are certain stipulations that must be met first. Then, of course, there is the problem with Iran, which is suddenly growing more heated.
With Iran making threats against Israel, Netanyahu stated, “Look, we don’t seek escalation. I hope they don’t, but if they do, all bets are off.”
On whether he thinks Iran will try to refire its nuclear enrichment plan, he stated, “I’m not sure they’ve decided to cross that line, because I think they heed President Trump’s warnings, and also because they’ve just experienced something, you know, less than a year ago … they saw what it entails.”
I have always liked Netanyahu and believe he is truly a wartime PM. The man is not afraid of anyone, and he will fight for Israel’s independence with his last breath, which is probably why the Democrats hate him so much.
