JERUSALEM AP - Former President Donald Trump lashed out Friday with profanity at Benjamin Netanyahu for congratulating President Joe Biden on his victory in the U.S. election.
Trump accused the Israeli leader of disloyalty, saying he had helped Netanyahu in his own election by reversing decades of U.S. policy and supporting Israel's claims to territory seized in war. Trump is falsely claiming that the U.S. election was stolen from him.
In interviews with Israeli journalist Barak Ravid earlier this year, Trump expressed fury at a video that Netanyahu had circulated online in which he congratulated Biden.
I liked Bibi. I still like Bibi, Trump said, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname, in the remarks published by the Yediot Aharonot newspaper. I think Bibi could have stayed quiet. He made a terrible mistake. Netanyahu had congratulated Biden more than 12 hours after the election was called and after most other world leaders. In the tweet, Netanyahu did not refer to him as the president-elect, and followed it up with a post praising Trump.
On January 20, the day Biden was inaugurated, Trump appeared to be indignant by a video released by Netanyahu on January 20, in which Netanyahu said he and Biden had a warm personal friendship going back many decades. I haven't spoken to him since. Trump was quoted as saying that.
Netanyahu was replaced as prime minister last summer after he was unable to form a majority in the wake of four hard-fought elections in less than two years.
The Trump administration took unprecedented measures to support Israel, including dropping objections to its settlements in the occupied West Bank and recognizing Jerusalem as its capital. After proposing a Mideast plan that was adamantly rejected by the Palestinians, the administration brokered normalization agreements between Israel and four Arab states.
Trump said that he recognized Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria in 1967, helped Netanyahu ahead of Israeli elections in April 2019.
I did it right before the election, which helped him Netanyahu a lot, Trump said.
The Trump administration withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which Israel had been strongly opposed to. After he imposed U.S. sanctions that had been lifted under the deal, Iran began publicly exceeding the limits it had set on its nuclear program. Biden is working with world powers to restore the agreement.
If I did not come along, I think Israel was going to be destroyed, Trump said.