Netanyahu says he and Trump see ‘eye to eye’ on Iran after holding 3 calls within days
Conversations ‘designed to further tighten strong alliance between Israel and the US,’ PM says in statement; Dermer, Herzog in Washington as attempts made to end fighting in north
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President-elect Donald Trump see “eye-to-eye” on the Iranian threat, the premier said in a video statement on Sunday, amid indications of an imminent Iranian response to Israel’s recent retaliatory strike.
Netanyahu also revealed that he and Trump had spoken three times since the latter’s American presidential election triumph last week.
The conversations “were designed to further tighten the strong alliance between Israel and the US,” said the premier. “We see eye-to-eye on the Iranian threat in all its components, and the danger posed by it. We also see the great opportunities before Israel, in the expansion of peace, and in other realms.”
Iran has vowed a “punishing” reprisal for unprecedented Israeli airstrikes against it on October 26, which Jerusalem said took out the Islamic Republic’s air defenses and missile production capabilities.
Israel’s strikes were in retaliation for Iran’s October 1 barrage of 200 ballistic missiles, which forced most of the country to take shelter and killed a Palestinian man in the West Bank. Days earlier, Israel killed Hassan Nasrallah, the longtime head of Iran’s Lebanese proxy Hezbollah. Israel also killed Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas — another of Iran’s beneficiaries — in Tehran.
Netanyahu described his conversations with Trump in the past few days as “good and very important.”
In his first term, Trump unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and Western powers and later re-imposed sanctions on Tehran. He also ordered the killing of Iranian commander, Qasem Soleimani, who led the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps’ foreign operations arm, the Quds Force. The IRGC is a US-designated terrorist organization.
While Trump and Netanyahu worked together closely during the former’s presidency, Trump responded with fury after the prime minister congratulated then-president-elect Joe Biden for winning the 2020 US election, while Trump was still trying to overturn the results.
In interviews for a book about his Middle East peace efforts, Trump, according to its author, used an expletive to describe the embattled prime minister — “Fuck him,” he reportedly said — and accused Netanyahu of disloyalty.
The two leaders seemed to move beyond the tensions in July, when Trump hosted Netanyahu and his wife at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Netanyahu also congratulated Trump in a fulsome X post shortly after last week’s elections and was one of the first world leaders to call the Republican candidate.
Trump wants the wars in Gaza and Lebanon to be wrapped up by his inauguration on January 20 and has made that clear to Netanyahu. He has also informed the Biden administration that he expects to see progress in the efforts to obtain a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, according to a Sunday report from Ynet news.
Netanyahu must continue working with the Biden White House to achieve that elusive goal.
His statement on Trump came as Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer was in Washington to attempt to make progress on a ceasefire in Lebanon. He was reportedly in Russia last week on a secret visit to discuss Moscow’s role in ensuring that a diplomatic arrangement to end the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah lasts.
According to Channel 12, Dermer will meet Trump and senior aides, which is the real purpose of the trip.
Dermer’s office declined to comment on the visit.
Israel launched a major ground operation in Lebanon after 11 months of near-daily rocket and anti-tank missile fire and drone attacks — at times deadly — which caused the evacuation of some 60,000 residents from areas close to the northern border.
Meanwhile, Lebanese politicians told the Hezbollah-affiliated outlet Al-Akhbar that Biden’s special envoy Amos Hochstein told them he had assured the country’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Najib Mikati last week that he would arrive in the country within 10 days.
However, other unnamed sources told the outlet that Lebanon has not been given any official date for Hochstein to arrive, with one source casting doubt on the envoy’s ability to achieve anything after coming up emptyhanded for the past year.
On Friday, the Lebanese MTV outlet cited unnamed US sources as saying that Trump told Hochstein to continue his work and “make a deal with Lebanon.”
US officials have said they will make a final push to reach deals on the conflicts between Israel and the Hamas and Hezbollah terror groups, although it is unclear how much leverage they have over Israel and other actors in the region now focused on the incoming Trump administration.
In October, ahead of the November 5 presidential election, Trump pledged to end the “suffering and destruction in Lebanon.”
Presidents to meet
While Netanyahu focuses his attention on Trump, President Isaac Herzog’s office said Israel’s head of state was set to meet Biden on Tuesday.
Herzog is in the United States for the Jewish Federations of North America’s annual General Assembly. The confab kicks off Sunday night with a mass rally at the Nationals Park baseball stadium in Washington.
There is currently no meeting with Trump or any other elected officials on the Israeli president’s schedule, though quiet meetings may take place.
There was no comment from the White House.
Herzog’s meeting comes as reports emerged of another weapons shipment being delayed by the Biden administration.
The US is holding up a shipment of armored bulldozers purchased by Israel for its military, the Ynet news site reported.
The Biden administration withheld shipments of some heavy bombs from Israel, given concerns over the Israeli incursion into south Gaza’s Rafah in the spring, but part of that shipment has since been released.
According to the report, Israel paid for the 134 Caterpillar D9 bulldozers months ago, but is still awaiting an export permit from the US State Department.
The report attributed the delay to protests in the US over the use of such bulldozers to destroy homes in the Gaza Strip, which the IDF says are used by Hamas.
There was no immediate comment from US officials on the report.
