Trump Meets With Netanyahu After Urging Israel to End War in Gaza

Former President Donald J. Trump, who has for months insisted Israel needed to end the war in Gaza as quickly as possible, is meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Friday in Palm Beach, Fla.

The meeting comes as Mr. Trump has been eager to demonstrate his ties to Israel, part of his effort to draw Jewish Americans away from their longstanding allegiance to Democrats. It also comes after months of him saying that Hamas’s deadly terrorist attacks on Israel in October and the ensuing war in Gaza would not have happened if he had won the 2020 election.

He and Mr. Netanyahu last met in 2020. Their meeting on Friday in Florida, at Mr. Trump’s private club and residence, Mar-a-Lago, is happening a day after he said in a Fox News interview that Israel has to “end this fast.”

“It can’t continue to go on like this. It’s too long. It’s too much,” Mr. Trump said in the interview.

But Mr. Trump has not provided a clear plan for how he would help bring the conflict to a close — even as he has criticized the Biden administration for failing to do so. He has repeatedly suggested he supported Israel using greater force in Gaza.

At the same time, Mr. Trump — who remains supportive of Israel and often calls himself the strongest ally of the country to serve in the White House — has been critical of Israel since it launched its military effort, taking issue with the fact that Israel has shared footage of the destruction in Gaza.