‘We may end up with third world war,’ Trump tells Netanyahu

By Andrew Bernard, JNS

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with former President Donald Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., on Friday.

In their first meeting since Trump left office in 2021, the two embraced on the steps of Trump’s club alongside Netanyahu’s wife, Sara.

Inside, Netanyahu presented Trump with a photograph of one of the Bibas children, whom Hamas took hostage on Oct. 7 along with his brother and parents.

“If we win, it will be very simple,” Trump said, seated across from Netanyahu. “It’s all gonna work out, and very quickly.”

“If we don’t, you’re gonna end up with major wars in the Middle East, and maybe a third world war,” Trump added. “We have incompetent people running our country.”

Netanyahu’s meeting with Trump caps off a U.S. tour for the Israeli leader that included an address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday and separate meetings at the White House with U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

Trump criticized Harris on Friday for remarks that she delivered after meeting with Netanyahu, in which she said that she would “not be silent” about “the scale of human suffering in Gaza.”

“I think her remarks were disrespectful. They weren’t very nice, pertaining to Israel,” Trump told Netanyahu. “I don’t actually know how a person who’s Jewish could vote for her, but that’s up to them.”

“But she was certainly disrespectful to Israel, in my opinion,” he added.

In a readout of the meeting, the Trump campaign stated that Netanyahu thanked the former president for moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem; helping bridge normalization deals between Israel and several Arab countries; ordering the assassination of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani; ending the 2015 Iran nuclear deal; and recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

“President Trump expressed his solidarity with Israel after the heinous Oct. 7 attack and pledged that when he returns to the White House, he will make every effort to bring peace to the Middle East and combat antisemitism from spreading throughout college campuses across the United States,” the Trump campaign said.