Republicans in Congress applauded often when Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, spoke at the Capitol on Wednesday. But the Republican nominee for president, Donald J. Trump, appeared less impressed with Israel’s messaging the next day, as reported by The New York Times.
Saying that Israel must end the war in Gaza “and get it done quickly, Trump argued that Israel was “getting decimated” by negative publicity over its conduct of the war, set off by the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel. Since then, more than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gazan health authorities, and the war has wreaked widespread disease, hunger and destruction.
“Israel is not very good at public relations,” Mr. Trump said.
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The comments came a day before a scheduled meeting on Friday between the former president and Mr. Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s private residence and club in Palm Beach, Fla. But it is not clear that the Israeli prime minister — who praised the former president in his congressional address — would agree with Mr. Trump about wrapping up the conflict.
In his speech to U.S. lawmakers, Mr. Netanyahu vowed that Israel would fight until Hamas was eradicated. He did not say what many Israelis, especially the relatives of hostages in Gaza, wanted to hear: that he would close a cease-fire deal with Hamas to end the war and return about 115 people taken from Israel on Oct. 7 who remain in Gaza, several dozen of whom are believed to be dead.
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On Monday, the Israeli military announced that two of the remaining hostages were dead. On Thursday, the Israeli military announced that five hostages’ bodies had been found in tunnels in an operation in Khan Younis and returned to Israel from Gaza.
The steady drumbeat of bad news about the captives underscores the urgency of a deal for the hostages’ relatives, some of whom met with Mr. Netanyahu in Washington this week, including at a gathering with President Biden at the White House on Thursday. They expressed optimism about the possibility of a deal when they emerged from the meeting, and told reporters in a briefing that Mr. Netanyahu understood the urgency of the need for a cease-fire.
It is a point that Mr. Trump may make at Mar-a-Lago, too, telling Mr. Netanyahu what he told Fox News: “Finish up.”
