Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Washington Sunday, looking for an electoral boost from Donald Trump amid expectations the U.S. president will
formally recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Trump broke longstanding international consensus last week over the status of the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war, saying the U.S. should recognize Israeli sovereignty over the strategic plateau.
Israel’s foreign minister said Trump would go one step further Monday when he welcomes a grateful Netanyahu to the White House.
“President Trump will sign tomorrow in the presence of PM Netanyahu an order recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights,” Israel Katz wrote on Twitter Sunday.
Netanyahu has long pushed for such recognition, and many analysts saw Trump’s statement, which came in a tweet Thursday, as a campaign gift ahead of Israel’s April 9 polls.
The prime minister is locked in a tough election fight with a centrist political alliance headed by former military chief Benny Gantz and ex-Finance Minister Yair Lapid.
New opinion polls last week showed Netanyahu losing ground to his electoral rivals, and the Washington visit was seen as an opportunity to regain momentum.
The prime minister has a “working meeting” at the White House Monday and a dinner Tuesday.
Also Tuesday, he is to address the annual conference in Washington of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Gantz speaks at the high-profile event Monday.
The Golan Heights decision is the latest major move in favor of Israel by Trump, who in 2017 recognized the occupied city of Jerusalem as the country’s capital.
Syria and other states in the region condemned Trump’s pledge, saying it violates international law. France said the same.
Israel annexed the Golan Heights in 1981 in a move never recognized by the international community.
Netanyahu phoned Trump to tell him he had made “history,” and called the gesture a “Purim miracle,” a reference to the Jewish holiday that Israel was celebrating that day.
Although Trump professed no knowledge of the Israeli politics in play, Netanyahu’s relationship with the U.S. president has long been a central feature of his campaign.
Trump appears on giant campaign billboards in Israel shaking hands and smiling with Netanyahu, and the premier has shared video of the U.S. leader calling him “strong” and a “winner.”
On the same day as Trump’s Golan Heights tweet, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was in Jerusalem, where he joined Netanyahu in a visit to the Western Wall, offering his host a pre-election photo opportunity.
It was the first time such a high-ranking American official had visited one of the holiest sites in Judaism, located in mainly Palestinian East Jerusalem, with an Israeli premier.
Trump relies on pro-Israel evangelical Christians as part of his electoral base and has moved U.S. policy firmly in Israel’s favor.
But Netanyahu has also deployed his considerable powers of persuasion to charm the mercurial president he calls his “friend.”
“Trump is very affected by personal things, and Bibi’s stroked him a lot,” said Jonathan Rynhold, a political science professor at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University, using Netanyahu’s nickname.
“I’m sure he’s also very affected by the last thing that was said to him, so whispering in his ear is [Trump’s son-in-law Jared] Kushner, who’s got a good relationship with Bibi.”
AFP
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