Bibi invited to Trump’s inauguration, meeting

ANT KATZ

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 20 January, according to a report last 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 9 November. The Walla news agency had reported a senior Israeli diplomatic official as having said Netanyahu has declined to meet Trump before the inauguration in order to “avoid embarrassing” the outgoing President.

“There is only one president at a time, you can’t work in tandem,” the official said according to Walla. “Until 20 January Obama is still in the White House and we must maintain all the rules of protocol,” said a spokesman for Netanyahu’s office.

During the phone call on 9 November, Netanyahu had apparently 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 had passed unanimously on 23 December. The resolution condemns Israel’s presence in territory captured from Jordan during the Six-Day War in 1967, including all of Jerusalem’s Old City. During the vote in the UN Security Council, the Obama Administration elected to abstain instead of exercising the US’s automatic veto power.

After winning territory in the Six Day War, Israel annexed the Golan Heights from Syria and occupied Gaza and the Sinai previously governed by Egypt – and the so-called West Bank and other territory from Jordan.

The holy land later made peace with Egypt and returned all captured land – with the exception of Gaza. In a similar peace deal, Israel returned Jordanian land to that country – with the exception of the West Bank and the old city areas of Jerusalem.