PM Benjamin Netanyahu (R) meets with then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in New York in September. (Kobi Gideon/Flash90)
A plan to invite Netanyahu to Trump’s inauguration follows an earlier invitation extended by the US president-elect.
Several advisers in US President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team are planning to invite Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu to the presidential inauguration ceremony on January 20, according to a report on Saturday in the New York Post.
“They’re talking all the time,” a source close to Trump’s transition team said. “And Netanyahu is talking about possibly going to the inauguration. There’s (also) a plan for Trump to meet with Netanyahu.”
According to Netanyahu’s office, Trump extended an invitation to meet “at the first opportunity” with the Israeli prime minister during a telephone conversation on November 9. Walla had reported a senior Israeli diplomatic official to have said that Netanyahu declined to meet Trump in order to “avoid embarrassing” outgoing US President Barack Obama.
“There is only one president at a time, you can’t work in tandem,” the official said according to Walla. “Until Jan. 20, Obama is still in the White House and we must maintain all the rules of protocol with him.”
The Prime Minister’s office noted that during the phone call on November 9, Netanyahu conveyed his eagerness to meet Trump, adding that his wife Sara is also looking forward to meeting first lady Melania.
Most recently, Netanyahu thanked Trump for his “clear-cut support for Israel” in opposing UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which passed unanimously on December 23. The resolution condemns all Israeli presence in territory captured by Israel from Jordan during the Six-Day War of defense in 1967, including all of Jerusalem’s Old City. During the vote, the Obama Administration elected to abstain instead of exercising the US’s automatic veto power.
By: Jonathan Benedek, World Israel News
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