ROME (ITALPRESS) – Addressing some 200 journalists after an hour-long meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was “honored” to be the first foreign leader invited to the White House. “You are the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House,” Netanyahu said, listing Trump’s policies toward Israel in his first term, including pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal, mediating the Abrahamic Accords and moving the embassy to Jerusalem. “You have picked up exactly where you left off,” he added. “Your leadership has brought hostages home,” Netanyahu said, adding that Trump has released the ammunition withheld by the previous administration, ended “unjust sanctions against Israeli citizens”-referring to sanctions against some settlers deemed extremist-“tackled anti-Semitism, stopped funding UNRWA and renewed maximum pressure against Iran.” All this was done by Trump in just two weeks, he said. “Can you imagine where we will be in four years?” Israel, Netanyahu said, has been changing the face of the Middle East since the Hamas assault on Oct. 7, 2023. “We have defeated some of America’s worst enemies. We have eliminated terrorists wanted for decades for spilling rivers of American blood,” he said. “Israel has never been stronger and the Iranian terrorist axis has never been weaker,” he added. But to secure Israel’s future and bring peace to the region, “we must finish the job,” Netanyahu stressed, laying out Israel’s goals in Gaza before resuming praising Trump. – Ipa agency photo -(ITALPRESS).
