By Dominic Taylor-
Donald Trump’s expletive about his old ally, Israel’s ex-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for congratulating Joe Biden on his victory in last year’s election, proves why he was unfit to be president for a second term.
A new book reveals how Trump stooped low when talking about US-Israel relations during his presidency. Trump’s remarks were also published by the English-language website of Israel’s Yediot Aharonot newspaper.
Congratulating succeeding presidents is common practise for every sitting president, yet Trump thought it fitting to pass disparaging and condescending remarks towards Israel prime minister, without any sense of shame.
“Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu were the closest of political allies during the four years they overlapped in office, at least in public. Not any more,” Ravid wrote.
“I haven’t spoken to him since,” Trump told Ravid in an interview. “Fuck him.”
He said Trump, who appeared close to Netanyahu while he was president from 2017 to 2021, was repeatedly critical of him in the interviews.
“The final straw for Trump was when Netanyahu congratulated President-elect Biden for his election victory while Trump was still disputing the result,” Ravid wrote.
Netanyahu had congratulated Biden more than 12 hours after the election was called, but did not name Biden in the tweet, but followed his tweet followed with a post praising Trump.
Trump appeared to be particularly incensed by a video released by Netanyahu on 20 January, the day Biden was inaugurated, in which Netanyahu said he and Biden had a “warm personal friendship going back many decades”.
Those comments of affection by Netanyahu was perceived as some kind of betrayal by the former U.S president, who wanted the former Israeli president to show an unflinching suport for him.
Trump has never conceded the election, but accused Biden of wide scale voter fraud, and tried to get his vice president, Mike Pence, to overturn the result of the election. He later became the first president in U.S history to be impeached, after inciting an insurrection against Capitol Hill on January 6 as Congress members met to certifiy the U/S 2020 election results.
Other foreign leaders congratulated Biden earlier than the Israeli leader, but for Trump, Netanyahu stood out.
“The first person that congratulated [Biden] was Bibi Netanyahu, the man that I did more for than any other person I dealt with,” Trump said, according to Ravid.
“Bibi could have stayed quiet. He has made a terrible mistake,” Trump said, using Netanyahu’s nickname.
The Trump administration took unprecedented steps to support Israel’s government, including dropping objections to its settlements in the occupied West Bank and recognizing Jerusalem as the country’s capital. After proposing a Mideast plan that was adamantly rejected by the Palestinians, the administration brokered normalization agreements between Israel and four Arab states.
“Nobody did more for Bibi. I liked Bibi. I still like Bibi. But I also like loyalty,” he said.
Ravid writes that Trump was unhappy that Netanyahu did not help him remain in office.
Netanyahu responded to the Axios story in a statement on Friday.
“I highly appreciate President Trump’s big contribution to Israel and its security,” he said.
“I also appreciate the importance of the strong alliance between Israel and the US and therefore, it was important for me to congratulate the incoming president.”
However, Netanyahu was only following traditional protocol in congratulating Biden, a courtesy foreign to the ill taste judgement of ex-president Trump. Natanahu was replaced as prime minister last summer after he was unable to form a governing majority in the wake of four hard-fought elections in less than two years.