Trump says he’d tell Netanyahu to ‘quickly’ end war, return to peacemaking

Former US president and presumptive Republican frontrunner Donald Trump says he would tell Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to finish the war against Hamas in Gaza “quickly and get back to the world of peace.”

Netanyahu insists that Israel is not far from completing the war and would be weeks away from doing so once it completes its still-yet-to-be-launched operation to dismantle the terror group’s remaining battalions in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

Trump does not go so far as to call for a ceasefire, but his remarks in an interview with Fox News are the second time this month that the former president has hinted at discomfort with Israel’s war against Hamas.

Asked what his message to Netanyahu would be, Trump says, “I think you have to finish it up, and do it quickly and get back to the world of peace.”

Trump says if he were re-elected in November, he would end the war between Russia and Ukraine, even before being sworn in on January 20, 2025, and he would also bring “peace in the Middle East,” recalling his success in brokering the Abraham Accords, which saw the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan agree to normalize ties with Israel.

Trump and Netanyahu have had a checkered relationship, with the former oftentimes indicating that he has never forgiven the Israeli premier for congratulating Joe Biden after he defeated Trump in 2020.

In a March 5 Fox interview, Trump said Hamas’s October 7 “attack on Israel, and likewise, Israel’s counterattack… would never have happened if I was president.”

While the remark indicated questionable feelings regarding Israel’s prosecution of the war, he added that Israel must “finish the problem.”