PM Netanyahu tours Israel's border. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)
Netanyahu’s support for Trump’s plan to build a wall on the border with Mexico has angered the Mexicans.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu endorsed President Donald Trump’s plan to build a wall along the Mexican border, pointing to Israel’s success on its southern border and generating a minor diplomatic crisis with Mexico by doing so.
Netanyahu tweeted Saturday that Israel’s security fence along its border with Egypt has been successful in stopping a swell of African migrants, bringing the flow of tens of thousands of illegal immigrants to a virtual standstill.
“President Trump is right. I built a wall along Israel’s southern border. It stopped all illegal immigration. Great success. Great idea,” he tweeted.
“The wall is necessary. That’s not just politics, and yet it is good for the heart of the nation because people want protection, and a wall protects. All you’ve got to do is ask Israel,” Trump said earlier on Fox News.
The Mexicans, who are opposed to the construction of the wall and are waging a diplomatic battle against Trump over the issue, reacted with rage to Netanyahu’s remarks.
President Enrique Pena Nieto reportedly took exception to Netanyahu’s praise of a border wall to keep out illegal immigration.
Mexico’s Foreign Ministry said in a communiqué that it “expressed to the government of Israel, via its ambassador in Mexico, its profound astonishment, rejection and disappointment over Prime Minister Netanyahu’s message on Twitter about the construction of a border wall.”
“Mexico is a friend of Israel and should be treated as such by its prime minister,” the statement continued, also noting that Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray Caso, on Friday, had expressed his deep affection for Israel in an event marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon tweeted a clarification to Netanyahu’s comment, saying that he “referred to our specific security experience which we are willing to share. We do not express a position on US-Mexico relations.”
Israeli Ambassador to Mexico Yonatan Peled also tweeted in Spanish that there was no comparison intended between Israel’s border with Egypt and the US-Mexico border. Israel’s border is closed because the threat of terrorism, he explained.
Former US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, who left his position only days ago, also criticized Netanyahu’s statement.
“PM Netanyahu’s top aides told me a key goal in Trump’s era was keeping bipartisan support for Israel. Now this?” he tweeted. “Hard to explain this intervention on a hotly debated issue in domestic US politics. Unless this endorsement is Trump’s demand of Netanyahu for something Netanyahu wants, the quid pro quo. But for what?”
“Canceling the Iran deal? Moving the US embassy to Jerusalem? Supporting building in settlement blocs?” were the reasons Shapiro offered for Netanyahu’s support of Trump.
“To me, it looks like Trump is already squeezing Netanyahu hard. ‘The Art of the Deal,'” he tweeted, referring to Trump’s book.
By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News
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