Reports: Netanyahu Doesn’t Want to Meet Trump Before Inauguration
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly declined an invitation to meet with President-elect Donald Trump before his inauguration.
During the phone conversation between the two leaders following the elections last week, Trump suggested that Netanyahu “come as soon as possible” to meet with him, the Hebrew-language Walla news website reported Thursday, citing two unnamed senior Israeli officials.
After discussing the appropriate protocols of such a visit, Netanyahu “elegantly refused Trump’s invitation in order to avoid embarrassing Obama,” Walla reported, citing sources close to the Israeli leader.
“There is only one president at a time, you can work in parallel. Until Jan. 20, Obama is still in the White House, and you have to keep the rules of the protocol with him,” an unnamed Israeli official told Walla, noting Inauguration Day.
Netanyahu and Trump spoke by phone the day after the U.S. elections in what the Prime Minister’s Office described as a “warm and heartfelt” conversation. At the time, the Prime Minister’s Office said that Trump invited Netanyahu to meet him “at the first opportunity.”
Candidate Trump met with Netanyahu in New York in September when the prime minister was in town for the United Nations General Assembly meeting. Netanyahu also met then with the Democratic candidate for president, Hillary Clinton.
Walla also reported that the Prime Minister’s Office, Foreign Ministry and the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., have begun working toward a meeting that will take place between Trump and Netanyahu after the inauguration.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Dive In
-
Fast Forward A Jewish city attorney is going after pro-Palestinian protesters. Her Oct. 7 tweets are making it complicated.
-
Fast Forward Kehlani responds to Cornell concert cancellation: ‘I am not antisemitic’
-
Fast Forward David Horowitz, ’60s radical turned right-wing firebrand and critic of Islam, dies at 86
-
Fast Forward Senate committee approves amendment to Antisemitism Awareness Act stating criticism of Israeli government isn’t antisemitic
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Why the Antisemitism Awareness Act now has a religious liberty clause to protect ‘Jews killed Jesus’ statements
- 2
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
- 3
Fast Forward The invitation said, ‘No Jews.’ The response from campus officials, at least, was real.
- 4
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward A Jewish city attorney is going after pro-Palestinian protesters. Her Oct. 7 tweets are making it complicated.
-
Fast Forward Kehlani responds to Cornell concert cancellation: ‘I am not antisemitic’
-
Fast Forward David Horowitz, ’60s radical turned right-wing firebrand and critic of Islam, dies at 86
-
News Pro-Nazi singer sells out Zagreb arena as Croatia’s collaborationist past sheds its taboo
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.