Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the weekly government meeting on Feb. 16 that the strong ties he has cultivated over the years with members of the Trump team are now paying off, and that the two administrations are working in “complete concert.”
In the wake of the U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to the Jewish state this week, Netanyahu noted that he had cultivated his ties with Republican leaders not in a partisan way, but in “a Zionist way.”
Israel needed to court public opinion and leadership “on both sides of the aisle in the United States, to support Israel and the outlooks which I am leading,” he said.
Repeating comments he made during a joint press conference with Rubio earlier that day, Netanyahu said there was “full coordination” between his government and the Trump administration, which are acting with a “common strategy.”
“I cannot go into details but we have a joint strategy, including when and how the gates of hell will open if all of our hostages, all of them, are not released and do not come back home,” said Netanyahu.
Trump issued an ultimatum to Hamas last week, warning that if all hostages were not free by noon on Saturday, there would be “hell to pay.” However, only three men were freed.
He added that Israel had not been surprised by Trump’s “revolutionary vision” for Gaza, namely the relocation of its population. The U.S. president first announced the plan during Netanyahu’s recent visit to Washington, D.C.
“We knew about it and we spoke about it beforehand, as was the case with other things that you are now hearing about,” said Netanyahu.
Israel and the United States are “committed together to common objectives, not just freeing the hostages, eliminating Hamas and—of course—ensuring that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to Israel,” said Netanyahu, but also to Trump’s plan for a “completely different Gaza.”
“It creates great hope for us, for a different kind of future, a status that the State of Israel has never had since its founding,” he continued.
“There have been neither opportunities such as this, or partners such as this or the potential to be rid of our enemies and bring about opportunities that we simply could not dream of,” the prime minister added.
In an apparent swipe at the Biden White House and other Democratic administrations, Netanyahu said that there “were much less friendly administrations that pressured us from every side to make dangerous concessions. They denied us so many things that were important to us.”