Trump
invites Netanyahu to be first foreign leader to visit White House
President
makes major concession to Israeli PM, US ally who is wanted by international
court for war crimes
Andrew Roth
in Washington
Wed 29 Jan
2025 01.28 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/28/trump-netanyahu-white-house-visit
Donald Trump
has invited Benjamin Netanyahu to be the first foreign leader to visit the
White House, in a major concession to a US ally who is wanted by the
international criminal court for war crimes.
The
invitation was made in a letter from the US president, which invited the
Israeli prime minister to come to the White House on 4 February to “discuss how
we can bring peace to Israel and its neighbors, and efforts to counter our
shared adversaries”.
“It will be
my honor to host you as my first foreign leader during my second term,” the
letter read.
Trump has
said he is “not confident” that the ceasefire in Gaza will hold. Under the
terms of the ceasefire, Israel and Hamas should soon commence negotiating a
longer-term peace that many fear will fail and lead to a return to bloodshed
following more than 15 months of fighting.
Trump and
Netanyahu have had a difficult personal relationship, but Israel remains the
US’s closest ally in the region. Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, is
said to have had a tense conversation with Netanyahu in the days before a
hostages-for-ceasefire deal was negotiated between Hamas and Israel, on the day
before Trump’s inauguration.
Since then,
Trump has lifted a ban on supplying Israel with 2,000lb bombs that had been
held back by the Biden administration in opposition to Israel’s overwhelming
use of force against Gaza.
Trump late
last week suggested that the Gaza Strip could be “just cleaned out” and that
more than 1.5 million people be sent to other Arab countries, in offhand
remarks that appeared to reflect plans for an ethnic cleansing of the region.
Netanyahu
has been accused by the international criminal court of bearing responsibility
for targeting civilian populations and using “starvation as a method of
warfare” during the Israeli military’s campaign in Gaza, which followed the 7
October raid by Hamas that killed roughly 1,200 Israelis and saw hundreds more
taken hostage.
More than
120 member countries of the ICC should arrest Netanyahu if he sets foot on
their territory, including most of Europe. The United States is not a party to
the agreement and Republicans have introduced legislation to sanction the ICC
for the warrants against Netanyahu and the former Israeli defense minister,
Yoav Gallant. Democrats on Tuesday blocked that legislation.
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