Strange or not, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, have fallen out with each other to the extent that the former U.S. president says he hasn’t spoken to him since he lost power.
Faraan: Former U.S. President has launched a scathing attack on his once-close ally, Netanyahu, accusing him of disloyalty.
In interviews with journalist and author, Barak Ravid, for his new book ‘Trump’s peace: The Abraham Accords and the Reshaping of the Middle East (West Asia),’ Trump accuses the former Israeli premier of “making a terrible mistake” by congratulating Joe Biden on his electoral win.
In these interviews, Trump expressed fury at a video Netanyahu circulated online in which he congratulated Biden.
The former U.S. president, who brokered the normalization deals between the regime in Tel Aviv and some Arab states last year, gave two freewheeling interviews to Ravid in April and July – one of them over the phone – for his book, which will be out this week.
One of the interviews will feature in a new season of Axios’ “How It Happened” podcast, to be released on Monday, Ravid informed in an article on Axios.
In the interviews, Trump speaks at length about his loss to Biden in the 2020 presidential elections and his love-hate relationship with Netanyahu, who has since been replaced by Naftali Bennett.
“For Bibi Netanyahu, before the ink was even dry, to do a message, and not only a message, to do a tape to Joe Biden talking about their great, great friendship — they didn’t have a friendship, because if they did, [the Obama administration] wouldn’t have done the Iran deal,” Trump said according to Axios, adding, “And guess what, now they’re going to do it again.”
Trump says his wife Melania was the one who saw Netanyahu’s video and told him about it.
“She said, Wow, look at this”, he recalls in the first interview recorded in April 2021 in Mar-a-Lago, a resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
“The first person who congratulated Joe Biden, because this was an election in dispute, it’s still in dispute. The first person who congratulated was Bibi Netanyahu, the man that I did more for than any other person I dealt with…Bibi could have stayed quiet. He has made a terrible mistake,” Trump is quoted as saying in the interview.
The bitterly fought election ended with Biden being declared the winner over Trump, but the latter never accepted the defeat, claiming largescale fraud.
The Pegasus scandal to Trump’s rants against Netanyahu is just a reminder that the Israeli regime, and not just Bibi, is nobody’s friend.In the interview with Ravid, Trump claims that, unlike Netanyahu, many other leaders like Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro and Russian President Vladimir Putin did not congratulate Biden right away because “they felt the election was rigged.”
“[Netanyahu] was very early — like, earlier than most. I haven’t spoken to him since. F**k him,” Trump said according to Axios.
Trump lauded his administration’s actions in Israel during his presidency, noting the administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as the country’s capital, and dropping objections to settlements in the occupied area in the West Bank.
“Take the Golan for example,” he says, “That was a big deal. People say that was a $10 billion gift. I did it right before the election, which helped him (Netanyahu) a lot… he would have lost the election if it wasn’t for me. So, he tied. He went up a lot after I did it. He went up 10 points or 15 points after I did Golan Heights.”
Trump also refers to the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and the world powers, from which he unilaterally withdrew in 2018 allegedly under Netanyahu’s pressure, as a “disaster.”
“Now Biden is going back to the deal because he has no clue. The Israelis fought this deal and Obama wouldn’t listen to them,” he says.
“The decision to back out of the deal was because of my relations with Israel – not with Bibi. Those were my feelings towards Israel,” he hastens to add.
The former U.S. president says had it not been for him, the Israeli regime would have been “destroyed.”
“I’ll tell you what – had I not come along I think Israel was going to be destroyed. Okay. You want to know the truth? I think Israel would have been destroyed maybe by now.”
Now in the opposition, Netanyahu has been making strenuous efforts to reclaim power while facing trial for corruption. On the other hand, Trump has been battling multiple legal troubles of his own.
The events of recent months, from the Pegasus scandal to Trump’s rants against Netanyahu, are just a reminder that the Israeli regime, and not just Bibi, is nobody’s friend.
