Former President Donald J. Trump, who for months has urged Israel to end the war in the Gaza Strip as quickly as possible, said that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel remained on good terms after the two met on Friday, and that he would be a stronger ally of Israel than Vice President Kamala Harris.
Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Trump, who met in Palm Beach, Fla., were close allies during Mr. Trump’s presidency, but their ties became strained after the 2020 election. Asked by a reporter after their meeting if the two would have to rebuild their ties if he won in November, Mr. Trump said, “We don’t have to; we’ve had a good relationship.”
The former president and Republican nominee greeted the Israeli leader warmly at his Mar-a-Lago estate and called his presumptive opponent, Ms. Harris, “radical” and not “very nice” to Israel. Even so, Mr. Netanyahu faces growing international criticism and pressure over Israel’s war effort, and his trip to shore up support fought against strong headwinds.
Mr. Trump, in a Fox News interview on Thursday, said of the war in Gaza: “It can’t continue to go on like this. It’s too long. It’s too much.” Ms. Harris and President Biden met with Mr. Netanyahu on Thursday, and pressed, as they have for months, for a cease-fire that would provide for the release of hostages held by Hamas.
Ms. Harris said after her meeting that she had voiced to the prime minister her “unwavering commitment” to Israel’s security and “my serious concern about the scale of human suffering in Gaza, including the death of far too many innocent civilians.”
And on Friday, the leaders of Australia, Canada and New Zealand called for an urgent cease-fire, saying that “the situation in Gaza is catastrophic.” In a joint statement, Prime Ministers Anthony Albanese of Australia, Justin Trudeau of Canada and Christopher Luxon of New Zealand said: “The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue.”
“We fully stand behind the comprehensive cease-fire deal, outlined by President Biden and endorsed by the U.N. Security Council,” the statement said. “We call on parties to the conflict to agree to the deal. Any delay will only see more lives lost.”
Israel’s allies, including the United States, have stated repeatedly that Israel has a right to defend itself and to retaliate for the Hamas-led assault on Oct. 7, while growing increasingly critical of the devastation and casualties created by the Israeli response. Almost 40,000 people in Gaza have been killed and 90,000 others wounded, according to health authorities there.
On Friday, Mr. Netanyahu did not directly criticize Ms. Harris, but said a cease-fire would be possible only if Hamas understood “that there’s no daylight between Israel and the United States that expedites the deal” and that he hoped Ms. Harris’s “comments don’t change that.”
Mr. Trump, who last met with Mr. Netanyahu when Mr. Trump was president, in 2020, insists that he is the most devoted ally of Israel, a position popular among Republicans, and he is eager to draw Jewish Americans away from their longstanding lean toward the Democratic Party.
On Friday, repurposing an attack line he has used for months against Mr. Biden, Mr. Trump again said that Jews who vote for Democrats are betraying their identities. “I actually don’t know how a person who’s Jewish can vote for her, but that’s up to them,” he said of Ms. Harris.
As he often does on the campaign trail, Mr. Trump also insisted that global conflicts were bringing foreign powers closer to a potential world war that only he could prevent. “You are closer to a third world war right now than at any time since the Second World War,” he said. “You’ve never been so close.”
Mr. Netanyahu delivered a high-profile speech to Congress on Wednesday, calling critics of Israel’s war effort either apologists for terrorists or dupes for the world’s worst actors. But his address was overshadowed by the stunning turn in the presidential race, with Mr. Biden dropping out and Ms. Harris quickly consolidating Democratic support.
American public support for Israel’s conduct of the war has dropped as the fighting has dragged on. Many Democratic lawmakers boycotted Mr. Netanyahu’s address, and Ms. Harris declined to play the vice president’s traditional role in such events of presiding in her capacity as president of the Senate, instead campaigning in the Midwest.
Unlike Ms. Harris, who put her concern about Gaza in moral terms and insisted, “I will not be silent,” Mr. Trump has cast his as a matter of shaping Israel’s global image, warning that it was losing support. He has been critical of Israel for sharing footage of the destruction in Gaza, and told Fox News Israel was “getting decimated” by negative publicity.
“Israel has to handle their public relations,” he said. “Their public relations are not good.” He added, “The world is not taking lightly to it.”
Though they were closely aligned during Mr. Trump’s term in the White House, he was irked by Mr. Netanyahu’s congratulating Mr. Biden on winning the 2020 presidential election, which Mr. Trump continues to falsely insist he won.
Days after the Oct. 7 assault on Israel, Mr. Trump criticized Mr. Netanyahu and Israeli intelligence officials as being poorly prepared. Since then, he has retreated from those criticisms. And he thanked Mr. Netanyahu for mentioning him in his address to Congress on Wednesday.
U.S. officials have said negotiators are close to sealing a deal with Hamas, and Mr. Netanyahu has recently hinted at the possibility that one would come soon. But the two sides remain fundamentally divided over when and how the war should end.
According to officials familiar with internal conversations, Israel’s defense agencies fear that Mr. Netanyahu will doom hopes for a cease-fire deal if he refuses to back down on some new demands, including his insistence that Israeli forces screen Palestinians for weapons at checkpoints as they move between southern and northern Gaza.
The post Though Critical on Gaza, Trump Cites Good Relations With Netanyahu appeared first on New York Times.