Netanyahu gifts Trump top Israeli peace award
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his country would award US President Donald Trump its Israel Prize â the first time it will honour a non-Israeli.
Source: The White House
Netanyahu announced Trump as the recipient of the prize â Israelâs highest civilian honour â shortly after the two leaders met at Trumpâs Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday (local time).
âIn almost our 80 years, weâve never awarded it to a non-Israeli,â Netanyahu said, citing Trumpâs âtremendous contributions to Israel and the Jewish peopleâ.
âPresident Trump has broken so many conventions to the surprise of people, and then they figure out, âoh, well, maybe, you know, he was right after allâ.
âSo we decided to break a convention too or create a new one, and that is to award the Israel Prize.â
Netanyahuâs announcement came after Trump was passed over for the Nobel peace prize in October, despite actively lobbying for it. A clip emerged from their talks on Monday that appears to show Trump lamenting the loss.
âThirty-five years of fighting and they stopped. Do I get credit for it? No,â he can be heard saying.
He then starts to say: âThey gave the Nob âŚ,â before being cut off.
âHow about India and Pakistan? So I did eight of them. And then Iâll tell you the rest of it,â he says.
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It also follows Trump receiving the specially created FIFA peace prize at the official draw for next yearâs soccer World Cup in Washington three weeks ago.
After his talks with Netanyahu, Trump said the US could support another major strike on Iran were it to resume rebuilding its ballistic missile or nuclear weapons programs and warned Hamas of severe âconsequences if it does not disarm.
Speaking beside Netanyahu following their meeting, Trump suggested Tehran may be working to restore its weapons programs after a massive US strike in June.
âIâve been reading that theyâre building up weapons âand other things, and if they are, theyâre not using the sites we obliterated, but possibly different sites,â Trump said.
âWe know exactly where theyâre going, what theyâre doing, and I hope theyâre not doing it because we donât want to waste fuel on a B-2,â he â added, referring to the bomber used in the earlier strike.
âItâs a 37-hour trip both ways. I donât want to waste a lot of fuel.â
Trump, who has broached a potential nuclear deal with Tehran in recent months, said his talks with Netanyahu focused on advancing the fragile Gaza peace deal he brokered and addressing Israeli concerns over Iran and over Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Iran, which fought a 12-day war with Israel in June, said last week that it had conducted missile exercises for the second time this month.
The Iranian mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trumpâs warning.
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Netanyahu said last week that Israel was not seeking a confrontation with Iran, but was aware of the report. He said he would raise Tehranâs activities with Trump.
Trump said he wanted to move to the second phase of the ceasefire deal between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas reached in October after two years of âfighting in Gaza, a progression that âentails international peacekeeping forces deployed in the Palestinian enclave.
Israel and Hamas accuse each other of major breaches of the deal and look no closer to accepting the much more difficult steps envisaged for the next phase. Hamas, which âhas refused to disarm, has been reasserting its control as Israeli troops remain entrenched in about half the territory.
Israel has indicated that if Hamas is not disarmed peacefully, it will resume military action to make it do so.
During his Monday comments, Trump heaped the blame on the militant group for not disarming more promptly, arguing that Israel had lived up to its side of the deal and warning that Hamas was inviting grave consequences.
âThere will be hell to pay,â Trump warned when asked what he will do if Hamas does not lay down its arms. He has made similar statements at previous intervals during the fighting.
While Washington has brokered three ceasefires involving its long-time ally â between Israel and Hamas, Israel and Iran, and Israel and Lebanon â Netanyahu is wary of âIsraelâs foes rebuilding their forces after they were considerably weakened in multiple wars.
Overall, Trumpâs comments suggested he remains firmly in Netanyahuâs camp, even as some aides have privately questioned the Israeli leaderâs commitment to the Gaza ceasefire.
Trumpâs plan to end the Gaza war ultimately calls for Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territory and Hamas to give up its weapons and forgo a governing role.
The first phase of the ceasefire included a partial Israeli withdrawal, an increase in aid and the exchange of hostages for Palestinian detainees and prisoners.
Trump said he wants to get to the second phase of the Gaza deal âas quickly as we can.â
Israel has yet to open the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, also a condition of Trumpâs plan, saying it will only do so once Gviliâs remains are returned.
Trump said he and Netanyahu did not agree fully on the issue of the Israeli-occupied West Bank but the Republican leader did not lay out what the disagreement was.
Before the meeting, Trump said he would talk to Netanyahu about the possibility of stationing Turkish peacekeepers in Gaza.
-with AAP
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