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Trump to Meet Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, Reinforcing Close Ties Trump, With Netanyahu, Formally Recognizes Israel’s Authority Over Golan Heights
(about 4 hours later)
WASHINGTON — President Trump will welcome Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to the White House on Monday morning, reinforcing the close relationship between two allies and underscoring the political and legal ups and downs that each has faced. WASHINGTON — President Trump signed a proclamation on Monday formally recognizing Israel’s authority over the long-disputed Golan Heights, handing the pen to his grateful guest, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.
Mr. Trump will be fresh off news that a lengthy investigation of his presidential campaign’s possible ties to Russia did not find evidence of a conspiracy, while Mr. Netanyahu still faces indictment on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. He is in an intense fight for his political survival in elections next month. Mr. Trump’s decision, first announced last week, reverses decades of American policy and is starkly at odds with international law. But it is a valuable political gift to Mr. Netanyahu a few weeks before he faces voters in Israel in a closely fought election.
Early on Monday, after a rocket launched from Gaza struck a house in central Israel, injuring seven people, Mr. Netanyahu announced he would cut short his visit to Washington, leaving for Israel immediately after meeting Mr. Trump in the Oval Office. “Today I am taking historic action to promote Israel’s ability to defend itself,” Mr. Trump said, “and really to have a very powerful, very strong national security, which they’re entitled to have.”
Mr. Netanyahu had been scheduled to have dinner with the president on Tuesday and to address a conference organized by a pro-Israeli lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or Aipac. Those events have been canceled. Israel’s permanent sovereignty over the Golan Heights was vital, he said, because otherwise, Iran and Iranian-backed militants operating in southern Syria would use the territory as a launching pad for attacks on Israeli towns.
The two-day visit was meant to showcase Mr. Netanyahu’s influence in Mr. Trump’s Washington at a critical moment in Israeli politics, when the prime minister’s legal woes are proliferating and he faces a fierce election challenge from Benny Gantz, a retired military chief. In a joint appearance with Mr. Netanyahu at the White House, Mr. Trump cited a rocket attack from Gaza, which struck a house in central Israel early Monday morning, injuring seven people, as an example of “the significant security challenges that Israel faces every single day.”
Last week, Mr. Trump declared that the United States should recognize Israel’s control over the long-disputed Golan Heights, a statement starkly at odds with international law and a reversal of decades of American policy, but a major election-eve gift to Mr. Netanyahu. Mr. Netanyahu announced earlier that he was cutting short his trip to Washington to return home Monday afternoon to marshal Israel’s military response to the attack. He had been scheduled to have dinner with the president on Tuesday and to address a conference organized by a pro-Israeli lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or Aipac.
But the prime minister was hit by two new accusations shortly before his departure for Washington: that he improperly authorized the sale of German-made submarines to Egypt without the approval of top military officials; and that he engaged in self-dealing, through an undisclosed stake in a company that supplied the German builder of both the Egyptian subs and several new Israeli warships. “Israel is responding forcefully to this wanton aggression,” the prime minister said. “I have a simple message to Israel’s enemies: We will do whatever we must do to defend our people and defend our state.”
Mr. Trump, on the other hand, was very likely to exult in the letter to congressional leaders on Sunday from Attorney General William P. Barr, in which he reported that the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, had not found collusion between Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign and Russian officials during the 2016 election. Mr. Netanyahu spoke of the linchpin role the Golan Heights had played in Israel’s defense. He recalled that his brother was among the soldiers who scaled the rocky heights during the Arab-Israeli war of 1967. Later on, Mr. Netanyahu himself, as a young officer, led a covert unit from Syria into the Golan Heights in the midst of a snowstorm.
The president erroneously described the letter as a “complete and total exoneration,” since Mr. Barr noted that on the question of whether Mr. Trump had obstructed justice, Mr. Mueller neither found the president had committed a crime nor exonerated him of one. “We hold the high ground, and we shall never give it up,” he said.
Mr. Barr made that decision for Mr. Mueller, concluding that the evidence against the president did not rise to obstruction of justice. Though Israel effectively annexed the Golan Heights in 1981, Mr. Netanyahu said it had to wait half a century for Mr. Trump “to translate our military victory into a diplomatic victory.”
Mr. Netanyahu’s meeting with Mr. Trump could still eclipse a major speech to Aipac by his opponent, Mr. Gantz, which is scheduled for roughly the same time as the Oval Office session. But the prime minister will lose the opportunity to address the group’s audience. The meeting between the two leaders was meant to showcase their enduring alliance — Mr. Netanyahu hailed Mr. Trump as the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the Oval Office — but it was disrupted, not only by the violence in Israel but also by their own changing political and legal fortunes.
“In light of the security events I decided to cut short my visit to the U.S.,” Mr. Netanyahu said after the rocket attack. Mr. Trump was fresh off news that a lengthy investigation of his presidential campaign’s possible ties to Russia’s 2016 election interference did not find evidence of a conspiracy, while Mr. Netanyahu still faces indictment in Israel on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
The curtailed visit came at a critical moment in Israeli politics, when the prime minister’s legal woes are proliferating and he faces a fierce election challenge from Benny Gantz, a retired military chief.
The prime minister was hit by two new accusations shortly before his departure for Washington: that he improperly authorized the sale of German-made submarines to Egypt without the approval of top military officials, and that he engaged in self-dealing, through an undisclosed stake in a company that supplied the German builder of both the Egyptian subs and several new Israeli warships.
Mr. Trump, on the other hand, was still exulting in the letter to congressional leaders on Sunday from Attorney General William P. Barr, in which he reported that the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, had not found collusion between Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia.
The president did not mention the Russia investigation during the signing ceremony, though in a later photo session with Mr. Netanyahu in the Oval Office, he accused his opponents of being “treasonous” in pushing the narrative of collusion with Russia.
At the signing ceremony, Mr. Trump listed all the steps he had taken to benefit Israel, including pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal and moving the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. After thanking the American ambassador to Israel, David M. Friedman, Mr. Trump asked him whether he was enjoying the relocated embassy.
“Yes,” said Mr. Friedman, who was standing behind the leaders.
“And you love Israel?” Mr. Trump asked.
“And America,” Mr. Friedman added.
“And America,” Mr. Trump repeated with a grin. “I was waiting for him to say that.”
Even in its abbreviated form, Mr. Netanyahu’s meeting with Mr. Trump overshadowed a major speech to Aipac by Mr. Gantz at the same time as the Oval Office session.
Mr. Gantz told his audience that the prime minister had “done well” by deciding to return home, and said he intended to return as well, “and if needed to fight in defense of our people.”
But in what amounted to a campaign speech before thousands of pro-Israel lobbyists, Mr. Gantz, a former chief of the Israeli Army’s general staff, also took shots at Mr. Netanyahu, while portraying himself as a soldier who would be tough on defense while running a cleaner and more inclusive government.
“There will be no Kahanists running our country. There will be no racists leading our state institutions and there will be no corruption,” Mr. Gantz declared in a not-so-subtle reference to Mr. Netanyahu’s embrace of a far-right party, Otzma Yehudit, and to his indictment on corruption charges.
In a line that brought the crowd to its feet, he declared: “As a proud owner of the red beret, worn by the liberator of the Kotel, I can tell you with confidence that the Western Wall is long enough to accommodate everyone. Everyone!”
At a time when Israel policy in the United States has become divisive, with many progressives and young Jews taking a highly critical view of the Netanyahu government, Mr. Gantz also sought to cast himself as a leader who would build bridges between Jews in the two countries.
“As an abba, as a father, I’m doing it for my kids,” he said, wrapping up his scripted speech with an ad-libbed last line. “But I’m doing it for your kids as well.”