WASHINGTON, March 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) –: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Washington on Sunday, looking for an electoral boost from Donald Trump amid expectations the US president will formally recognise Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
Trump broke longstanding international consensus last week over the status of the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 Six Day War, saying the US should recognise Israeli sovereignty over the strategic plateau.Advertisement
Israel’s foreign minister said the US president will go one step further on Monday when he welcomes a grateful Netanyahu to the White House.
“President Trump will sign tomorrow in the presence of PM Netanyahu an order recognising Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz wrote on Twitter on Sunday.
Netanyahu has long pushed for such recognition, and many analysts saw Trump’s statement, which came in a tweet on Thursday, as a campaign gift ahead of Israel’s Apr 9 polls.
He picked up another on Sunday, when Romania’s Prime Minister Viorica Dancila said her government would move their embassy to Jerusalem, breaking with the European position and apparently with her own president as well.
Netanyahu is locked in a tough election fight with a centrist political alliance headed by former military chief Benny Gantz and ex-finance minister Yair Lapid.
New opinion polls last week showed Netanyahu losing ground to his electoral rivals, and the Washington visit was seen as an opportunity to regain momentum.
The prime minister has a “working meeting” at the White House on Monday and a dinner on Tuesday.
Also on Tuesday, he is to address the annual conference in Washington of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Gantz speaks at the high-profile event on Monday.
The Golan Heights decision is the latest major move in favor of Israel by Trump, who in 2017 recognised the disputed city of Jerusalem as the country’s capital.
Syria and other states in the region condemned Trump’s pledge, saying it violates international law. France said the same.
Israel annexed the Golan Heights in 1981 in a move never recognised by the international community.
Netanyahu phoned Trump to tell him he had made “history,” and called the gesture a “Purim miracle,” a reference to the Jewish holiday that Israel was celebrating that day.
Although Trump professed no knowledge of the Israeli politics in play, Netanyahu’s relationship with the US president has long been a central feature of his campaign.
Trump appears on giant campaign billboards in Israel shaking hands and smiling with Netanyahu, and the premier has shared video of the US leader calling him “strong” and a “winner.”
Netanyahu has been prime minister for a total of 13 years and will be on track to surpass founding father David Ben-Gurion as Israel’s longest-serving premier if he wins next month. — NNN-AGENCIES