Trump: Bibi Is A «Great Guy», It’s Too Bad What Happened in «Israel»

By Staff, Agencies

US President Donald Trump on Thursday lamented "Israeli" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s inability to form a coalition, and praised the premier as a “great guy.”

While speaking to reporters on the White House lawn before boarding Marine One to an Air Force Academy commencement in Colorado Springs, Trump was asked to comment on the political situation in the “Israeli” entity, which will see the entity head to elections for the second time in less than six months.

“Well, it’s too bad what happened in ‘Israel’. It looked like a total win for Netanyahu, who’s a great guy, he’s a great guy,” said the president. “And now they’re back… in the election stage. That is too bad. Because they don’t need this. I mean they’ve got enough turmoil over there, it’s a tough place.”

Trump was widely seen as overtly pushing to get Netanyahu elected, with a series of steps aimed at boosting Netanyahu’s popularity, including recognizing the entity’s so-called sovereignty over the Golan Heights in a festive ceremony at the White House just days before the election.

Earlier this week, while Netanyahu still had time to cobble together a coalition by the Wednesday night deadline, Trump chimed in on Twitter, expressing hope that despite stalled coalition negotiations, the “Israeli” premier would be able to form a government in order to further strengthen ties between the countries.

“Hoping things will work out with ‘Israel’s’ coalition formation and Bibi [Netanyahu] and I can continue to make the alliance between America and ‘Israel’ stronger than ever. A lot more to do!” Trump tweeted in the midst of the drama back in the “Israeli” entity.

Speaking to Trump’s Middle East advisers who were in the entity on Thursday, Netanyahu said that “Israel”-US ties would not be affected by Wednesday night’s political “little event.”

“Even though we had a little event last night – that’s not going to stop us. We’re going to continue working together. We had a great, productive meeting which reaffirms that the alliance… has never been stronger,” Netanyahu said, according to a recording released by the US Embassy in al-Quds [Jerusalem].

Kushner, accompanied by Trump’s so-called Mideast peace envoy Jason Greenblatt and Brian Hook, the US special representative for Iran, arrived in al-Quds last night after earlier stops in Morocco and Jordan. They are on a trip to lay the groundwork for the economic section of the administration’s peace plan.

The Trump administration purposefully set its peace plan launch for after coalition negotiations, when “Israel” would have a functioning government, and it isn’t clear if the date will change now that the country is again going to the polls.

“I came with greetings from President Trump for you and all the people of ‘Israel’,” Kushner told Netanyahu. “This was my first visit to ‘Israel’ since the president recognized the Golan Heights, which was a very important announcement. The security of ‘Israel’ is something that’s critical to the relationship between America and ‘Israel’ and also very important to the president in his heart, and we appreciate all your efforts to strengthen the relationship between our two countries.”