Opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded on Friday to criticism levelled at him by former US President Donald Trump over Netanyahu being too quick, in Trump’s opinion, to congratulate Joe Biden over being elected US President.
“I highly appreciate President Trump’s big contribution to Israel and its security. I also appreciate the importance of the strong alliance between Israel and the US and therefore it was important for me to congratulate the incoming President," Netanyahu said in a statement.
Trump’s criticism came in an interview with Israeli journalist Barak Ravid for Ravid’s new book, "Trump’s Peace: The Abraham Accords and the Reshaping of the Middle East," which will be published in Israel on Sunday and of which excerpts were published on Friday.
Trump claimed in the interview that unlike Netanyahu, 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."
"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, they wouldn't have done the Iran deal. And guess what now they're going to do it again. And if they do it again, Israel is in very grave danger," he said.
"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. And the first person that congratulated Joe Biden, because this was an election in dispute, it's still in dispute. The first person that 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," continued Trump, who added, “I haven't spoken to him since. F*** him."
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)
