President Donald Trump meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Florida, December 29, 2025. (Amos Ben-Gershom/GPO)
Prime Minister Netanyahu uses his meeting with President Trump to announce that the Education Ministry has selected the president for the country’s top prize.
By World Israel News Staff
President Donald Trump has been awarded the Israel Prize, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Monday, marking the first time in the 72-year history of the prize that a non-Israeli has been selected for the honor.
During a joint press conference with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Netanyahu revealed that Israel’s Ministry of Education, which is charged with selecting each year’s recipient of the award, decided recently to award the prize to the American president.
“President Trump has broken so many conventions to the surprise of people, and then they figure out, oh, well, maybe, you know, he was right after all,” Netanyahu said.
“So, we decided to break a convention, too, or create a new one, and that is to award the Israel Prize, which, in almost our 80 years, we’ve never awarded it to a non-Israeli.”
Netanyahu said that Trump was selected for the prize in recognition of his contributions to Israel, and represented the “overwhelming sentiment” of the Israeli people.
“We’re going to award it this year to President Trump. This was announced formally over lunch by our Minister of Education, who’s responsible for the Israel Prize. It’s going to be awarded to President Donald J. Trump for his tremendous contributions to Israel and the Jewish people.”
Netanyahu invited Trump to visit Israel for the award ceremony, which is traditionally held on Israeli Independence Day.
“It’s such a fitting thing, and it would honor us, obviously, Mr. President, if you could visit Israel on that occasion, on our Independence Day. But I have to say that this reflects the overwhelming sentiment of Israelis across the spectrum.”
“They appreciate what you’ve done to help Israel and to help our common battle against the terrorists and those who would destroy our civilization.”
The president responded to Netanyahu’s announcement by thanking him for the “great honor.”
Yazouri had survived several previous Israeli attempts to kill him during the current war and…
The UAE normalized relations with Israel in 2020 under the Abraham Accords.
As Jews around the world prepare to welcome Rosh Hashana, we enter a new year…
Protesters argued that sanctions unfairly penalize Israeli settlers and civil society organizations instead of focusing…
Israel spent eight months luring Iran's top IRGC commanders into a trap, while covert operatives…
While Trump declined to order American strikes in Yemen, the US military has expanded its…