Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gave a warm greeting to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife on Friday as the two leaders met for talks in Florida.
Trump kissed Sara Netanyahu on both cheeks, then clasped hands with the long-serving prime minister before posing for a photo with the two while giving a thumbs up sign, a video clip posted on social media by the former president showed.
Netanyahu posted a photo online showing him holding a hat that said “TOTAL VICTORY” — which he has vowed to achieve against Hamas in Gaza — as he stood next to Trump at the Republican’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
The tone was in notable contrast to Netanyahu’s meeting with presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris the previous day, in which the vice president told him to seal a Gaza peace deal and insisted that she would not be “silent” on the suffering in the Palestinian enclave.
“What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating. The images of dead children and desperate hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time,” Harris told reporters.
Gaza has been devastated by more than nine months of Israeli operations against Hamas, which launched a shock attack in October that resulted in the death of 1,197 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures
More than 39,175 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory campaign, according to data provided by the health ministry of Hamas-run Gaza, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.
Netanyahu had a notably warmer relationship with Trump than with current President Joe Biden, and has clashed with the Democrat’s administration on issues including civilian casualties in Gaza and the speed of US weapons deliveries to Israel.
The Israeli leader addressed a joint meeting of the US Congress this week, praising actions Trump took while president.
“I… want to thank President Trump for all the things he did for Israel. From recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights to confronting Iran’s aggression to recognizing Jerusalem as our capital and moving the American embassy there,” Netanyahu said.
