Foreign minister says return of Trump offers Israel ‘great opportunities’

Speaking to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar says the return of Donald Trump brings “great opportunities” for Israel.

“Next year, 2025, will also be a challenging year,” he says, “but also a year with great opportunities, with a new administration led by President-elect Donald Trump.”

Sa’ar notes that “this does not mean that there will be agreements on everything and that there will be no more debates, but it certainly leaves room for optimism.”

The foreign minister adds that an Association Council meeting with the EU — only the second such gathering since 2012 — will take place in Brussels in two months. “We certainly look forward to opening a new page of constructive dialogue with the European Union,” he says.

Sa’ar says his ministry, which received hundreds of millions of shekels for public diplomacy, is “laying the foundations” for a change in the way Israel presents itself on the world stage. “The trend should not be defensive, the trend should be assertive. We definitely have a case to stand assertively in the international arena, and I do not believe that any other approach can bring results.”