President Donald Trump insisted on Monday that his relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “very good” despite the Israeli leader’s rejection of a US-led Gaza plan.
“The relationship is very good,” Trump said in response to a shouted question from a journalist at the end of an Oval Office event.
After more than a week of gradually escalating criticism, Netanyahu explicitly stated on Sunday that he opposed the Gaza plan, which called for Israel to begin pulling back forces in tandem with disarmament by Hamas.
Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader, is running even or trailing in some polls ahead of October 27 elections, the country’s first since the devastating 2023 attack by Hamas that sparked the Gaza war.
Polls show that the Gaza plan is unpopular with Netanyahu’s right-wing base, and far-right members of his cabinet had urged him to kill it.
