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From the Liveblog of Friday, July 26, 2024

Ending years of silence, Netanyahu called Trump on July 4 to mark US Independence Day

By Jacob Magid

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26 July 2024, 9:24 am 4 Edit

Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief

Then-US president Donald Trump welcomes visiting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House in Washington, March 25, 2019. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

WASHINGTON — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on the phone with former US president Donald Trump on July 4, calling him to wish a Happy Independence Day, an Israeli official reveals to reporters in what appears to have been the first time the two have spoken since January 2021.

Netanyahu infuriated Trump after the premier congratulated US President Joe Biden on winning the 2020 election, which Trump falsely claims was stolen.

Trump wrote Netanyahu off, telling Israeli reporter Barak Ravid, “F**k him” in an interview months later. The former president has also criticized Netanyahu for what he said was his failure to stop the October 7 Hamas terror assault, and accused him of failing to cooperate with the 2020 assassination of top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, which Trump had ordered.

But hours before they are due to meet for the first time since Trump was president, the Israeli official tells reporters that the relationship between Netanyahu and the former president is “good.”