Benjamin Netanyahu used maps of Hezbollah missile sites and intelligence gained from a Mossad raid in Tehran to make sure Donald Trump backed Israel in Middle East peace talks and pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, the former Israeli prime minister writes in a new memoir.
But in unconventional scenes similar to those in countless books of reportage and Trump tell-alls, Netanyahu also says that to sway Trump from his desire to pursue peace between Israel and the Palestinians and to scotch his positive first impression of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, the Israelis deployed golfing metaphors and maps of New York City.
The Palestinians, Trump was told, were hostile and wanted a border as close to Tel Aviv as the George Washington Bridge is to Trump Tower. A lasting peace, Trump was told, was as likely as “a hole-in-one through a brick wall”.
The former and possibly future Israeli leader’s book, Bibi: My Story, will be published in the US on Tuesday. The Guardian obtained a copy.
Netanyahu stuck close to Trump throughout the latter’s time in the White House, between 2017 and 2021. Both are now out of power. Netanyahu’s memoir will be published under the shadow of corruption charges, while Trump faces legal jeopardy from investigations of the US Capitol riot, his business practices and a defamation lawsuit over a rape allegation, which he denies.
Predictably, Netanyahu ticks off policy successes, among them US withdrawal from the Iran deal, the US embassy moving to Jerusalem and the US recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
Netanyahu also describes the genesis and signing of the Abraham Accords, normalization deals signed by Israel and four Arab countries.
Netanyahu avoids comment on American domestic politics, including Trump’s refusal to accept his defeat by Joe Biden, his lies about electoral fraud and his incitement of the US Capitol riot of 6 January 2021.
Nor does Netanyahu comment on Trump’s reported comment in his direction – “Fuck him” – after the Israeli congratulated Biden on his election victory.
But Trump being Trump – a president of “inherent irreverence”, in Netanyahu’s words – colorful details of private meetings do make it to print.
Describing Trump’s first meeting in Israel, in May 2017 with the Israeli president, Reuven Rivlin, Netanyahu echoes an account by David Friedman, then US ambassador to Israel, in his own book.
“When he was with Rivlin,” Netanyahu writes, “Trump blurted out, ‘Bibi doesn’t want peace.’ For some unfathomable reason, this bombshell wasn’t leaked.”
Netanyahu says Ron Dermer, then Israeli ambassador to the US, was “flabbergasted. This was not, ‘Houston, we have a problem.’ This was, ‘Houston, we are the problem!”
Netanyahu describes how he and Friedman contrived to play Trump a video meant to “adjust his thinking about Mahmoud Abbas, and about” Netanyahu. The tape portrayed the Palestinian leader as two-faced, talking peace in English and praising terrorists in Arabic.
Netanyahu writes: “I could see that the video registered with Trump, at least momentarily. ‘Wow,’ he said. ‘Is that the same guy I just met in Washington? He seemed like such a sweet, peaceful guy.’
“Naturally, Trump didn’t like being taken for a fool. I hoped the video would mitigate further bonding during his scheduled meeting with Abbas in Bethlehem on the last day of the trip.”
Friedman has said the tape stunt earned a rebuke from Rex Tillerson, then secretary of state, and HR McMaster, then national security adviser, Trump administration “adults” who thought the video “a cheap propaganda trick”.
Netanyahu now reveals that he deployed further visual aids for Trump, who even so early in his presidency was known not to read briefing papers, to become bored easily and to…
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