Washington: US President Donald Trump staked his claim as a great global peacemaker, congratulated Israel for winning the war against Hamas and foreshadowed a possible deal with Iran in a loose and colourful speech to the Israeli parliament that also waded into the country’s fraught domestic politics.
As the last Israeli hostages held by Hamas were released, and Israel began freeing 2000 Palestinian prisoners as part of a ceasefire brokered by Trump and his allies, the US president lavished praise upon Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and predicted “the historic dawn of a new Middle East”.
Trump said Netanyahu showed courage by agreeing to end the war now, after two years, rather than pursuing the complete destruction of Hamas and Gaza in response to the October 7, 2023 attacks by the terrorist group that killed 1200 Israelis and took 250 hostages.
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He revealed how he had counselled Netanyahu against holding out for more, suggesting that Israel was losing its remaining goodwill from the world as the war dragged on. More than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed, including Hamas combatants and civilians.
“You’ve come back strong because it was getting to be a little nasty out there in the world. Ultimately, the world wins. You can’t beat the world,” Trump told the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem.
“I would say to Bibi [Netanyahu]: Bibi, it’s now time … If you would have gone on three or four more years, keep fighting, fighting, fighting, it was getting bad, it was getting heated. The timing of this [ceasefire] is brilliant.”
Read more on this story from North America correspondent Michael Koziol here.