From the Liveblog of
Sunday, February 16, 2025
Netanyahu: Trump and I have ‘joint strategy’ on when ‘the gates of hell will open’ on Hamas
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
Speaking at the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Netanyahu stresses that he and US President Donald Trump are in lockstep on the future of Gaza and what to do about Hamas.
“President Trump and I are working in full cooperation and coordination,” says Netanyahu, shortly after stressing the same point in a joint statement to the press, alongside US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “I cannot go into all the details — but we have a joint strategy, including when and how the gates of hell will open if all of our hostages, all of them, are not released and do not return home.”
He also insists that the two leaders have common goals: “Not only the release of the hostages, the elimination of Hamas, and of course ensuring that Gaza will not again be a threat to Israel, plus the president’s plan that says that Gaza will be completely different.”
He says the “joint strategy” can create “a totally different future” for Israel. Never in Israel’s history, he argues, has there been such potential to eliminate threats and create opportunities for the Jewish state.
Netanyahu also takes a not-so-veiled swipe at the Biden administration.
“We faced administrations, let’s be honest, I will be a diplomat for a moment — much less sympathetic. Administrations that also pressured us from all sides to make dangerous concessions, withheld from us all sorts of things that were important to us,” he says.
Netanyahu takes credit for cultivating the relationship with Trump and his circle, and says that it was not done for partisan reasons, but for Israel’s best interests.
