{"id":54575,"date":"2018-03-06T09:20:47","date_gmt":"2018-03-06T17:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.46.6.243\/?p=54575"},"modified":"2018-03-06T09:20:47","modified_gmt":"2018-03-06T17:20:47","slug":"president-trump-and-prime-minister-netanyahu-of-israel-before-bilateral-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=54575","title":{"rendered":"President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel Before Bilateral Meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;PRESIDENT TRUMP:  Thank you very much.  It\u2019s a great honor to have Prime Minister Netanyahu and Mrs. Netanyahu with us.  They\u2019ve been friends for a long time.  We have, I would say, probably the best relationships right now with Israel that we ever had.  I think we\u2019re as close now as, maybe, ever before. n Jerusalem was a wonderful thing, and I know it was very much appreciated in a big part of the world, not just in Israel \u2014 in a very big part.  So that was a decision that I had to make.  Many Presidents were discussing whether or not to make that decision, and they promised it in their campaigns but they never were able to do what they should have done.  So I was able to do it, and I think it\u2019s something that\u2019s very much appreciated in Israel, but far beyond Israel.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OO9zmy1hshs\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>We are very close on trade deals.  We are very, very close on military and terrorism and all of the things that we have to work together on.<\/p>\n<p>So the relationship has never been better.  And, Mr. Prime Minister, and Mrs. Netanyahu, it\u2019s a great honor to have you.<\/p>\n<p>MRS. NETANYAHU:  Thank you.<\/p>\n<p>PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU:  Thank you.  Thank you.  Mr. President, Donald, Melania: Sara and I want to thank you for your extraordinary friendship and hospitality.  It\u2019s always a pleasure to see you, both but this is the first time we meet in Washington \u2014 America\u2019s capital \u2014 after you declared, Mr. President, Jerusalem as Israel\u2019s capital.  And this was a historic proclamation followed by your bold decision to move the embassy by our upcoming National Independence Day.<\/p>\n<p>I want to tell you that the Jewish people have a long memory.  So we remember the proclamation of the great King Cyrus the Great \u2014 Persian King.  Twenty-five hundred years ago, he proclaimed that the Jewish exiles in Babylon can come back and rebuild our temple in Jerusalem.  We remember, 100 years ago, Lord Balfour, who issued the Balfour Proclamation that recognized the rights of the Jewish people in our ancestral homeland.<\/p>\n<p>We remember seven years ago, President Harry S. Truman was the first leader to recognize the Jewish state.  And we remember how a few weeks ago, President Donald J. Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel\u2019s capital.  Mr. President, this will be remembered by our people throughout the ages.  And as you just said, others talked about it.  You did it.  So I want to thank you on behalf of the people of Israel.  And I also want to \u2014 I look forward to our discussions on both challenges and opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>If I had to say what is our greatest challenge in the Middle East to both our countries, to our Arab neighbors, it\u2019s encapsulated in one word: Iran.  Iran has not given up its nuclear ambitions.  It came out of this nuclear deal emboldened, enriched.  It\u2019s practicing aggression everywhere, including on our own borders.  And I think we have to stop this country \u2014 the chants, \u201cDeath to Israel,\u201d \u201cDeath to America.\u201d  Iran must be stopped.  That is our common challenge.<\/p>\n<p>The second is seeking, because of that challenge, to exploit the opportunity for peace because the Arabs have never been closer to Israel; Israel has never been closer to the Arabs.  And we seek, also, to broaden that peace with the Palestinians.<\/p>\n<p>So I look forward to those discussions.  But I want to \u2014 I want to just iterate \u2014 reiterate what you just said.  Mr. President, I\u2019ve been here for nearly four decades with talking and seeking to build the American-Israel alliance.  Under your leadership, it\u2019s never been stronger, and the people of Israel see your position on Jerusalem, they see your position on Iran.  They see your magnificent defense of Israel and the truth in the United Nations.  And I, as a Prime Minister, see something that you, as President, see, but others can\u2019t see \u2014 the extent of our intelligence and other cooperation in matters that are vital to the security of both our peoples.<\/p>\n<p>And, Mr. President, I just want to say thank you for your leadership, and thank you for your tremendous friendship.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you.<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  Thank you very much.  Thank you.  My honor.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Mr. President, when do you intend (inaudible) your peace plan?<\/p>\n<p>Q    Are you going to come to Jerusalem for the opening of the embassy?<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  I may.  I may.  They have started, as you know, construction.  And I may.  We will be talking about that and other things.<\/p>\n<p>Q    So you might come in May to open the embassy?<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  I may.  I may.  We\u2019re looking at it.  We\u2019ll have it built very quickly.  A lot of people wouldn\u2019t be doing it quickly like that.  But we\u2019re going to have it built very quickly and very inexpensively.<\/p>\n<p>They put an order in front of my desk last week for a billion dollars.  I said, \u201cA billion?  What\u2019s that for?\u201d  \u201cWe\u2019re going to build an embassy.\u201d  I said, \u201cWe\u2019re not going to spend a billion dollars.\u201d  And we\u2019re actually doing it for about $250,000.  So check that out.  Now, it\u2019s temporary, but it\u2019ll be very nice.  Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars versus a billion dollars.  Is that good?<\/p>\n<p>PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU:  Yeah.  It\u2019s good.<\/p>\n<p>Q    So can we say that you\u2019re (inaudible) coming to Jerusalem?<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  We\u2019re looking at coming.  If I can, I will.  But I\u2019ll be there again.  Israel is very special to me.  Special country.  Special people.  And I look forward to being there, and I\u2019m very proud of that decision.<\/p>\n<p>Q    And what about your peace deal?  When will you present your peace deal?<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  We\u2019re going to see.  We\u2019re working on it very hard, and we\u2019d like to \u2014 look, it would be a great achievement, and even from a humanitarian standpoint, what better if we could make peace between Israel and the Palestinians?  And I can tell you, we\u2019re working very hard on doing that.  And I think we have a very good chance.<\/p>\n<p>And the biggest difficulty that anybody has had \u2014 you look over 25 years \u2014 nobody could get past, number one, Jerusalem.  They couldn\u2019t get past it.  We\u2019ve taken it off the table.  So this gives us a real opportunity to peace.  We\u2019ll see how it works out.  The Palestinians, I think, are wanting to come back to the table very badly.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Who said that?<\/p>\n<p>Q    What if they don\u2019t come?<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  If they don\u2019t, you don\u2019t have peace.  You don\u2019t have peace.<\/p>\n<p>Q    What\u2019s your plan if they don\u2019t come?<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  If they don\u2019t, you don\u2019t have peace, and that\u2019s a possibility also.  I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s going to happen.  Everybody said this is the hardest deal to make of any deal.  Whenever you have a hard deal, like in business, you say, \u201cOh, this is almost as bad as Israel and the Palestinians.\u201d  You use it like as an example.<\/p>\n<p>This is the hardest deal.  This is years and years of opposition and, frankly, hatred, and a lot of things involved in this deal beyond the land.  And I will tell you that if we could do \u2014 if we could do peace between Israel and the Palestinians, that would be a great thing for the world.  It would be a great thing for this country and for everybody.<\/p>\n<p>So we\u2019re working very hard on it, and we have a shot at doing it.  Thank you all very much.  I appreciate it.  Thank you.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Paul Ryan wants you to back down on trade.  Paul Ryan says he\u2019s worried about a trade war.  Are you going to back down on the tariffs?<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  No, we\u2019re not backing down.  Mexico is \u2014 we\u2019ve had a very bad deal with Mexico, a very bad deal with Canada.  It\u2019s called NAFTA.  Our factories have left our country.  Our jobs have left our country.  For many years NAFTA has been a disaster.  We are renegotiating NAFTA, as I said I would.  And if we don\u2019t make a deal, I\u2019ll terminate NAFTA.<\/p>\n<p>But if I do make a deal which is fair to the workers and to the American people, that would be, I would imagine, one of the points that we\u2019ll negotiate.  It will be tariffs on steel for Canada and for Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>So we\u2019ll see what happens.  But right now, 100 percent.  But it could be a part of NAFTA.  And I understand \u2014 I just got a call from the people who are right now in Mexico City negotiating NAFTA.  Mexico and, really, Canada want to talk about it.  But if they aren\u2019t going to make a fair NAFTA deal, we\u2019re just going to leave it this way.<\/p>\n<p>People have to understand, our country, on trade, has been ripped off by virtually every country in the world, whether it\u2019s friend or enemy \u2014 everybody.  China, Russia.  And take people that we think are wonderful \u2014 the European Union \u2014 we can\u2019t do business in there.  They don\u2019t allow it.  They have trade barriers that are worse than tariffs.  They also have tariffs, by the way, but they have trade barriers far worse than tariffs. And if they want to do something, we\u2019ll just tax their cars that they send in here like water.<\/p>\n<p>So we may have friends, but remember this: We lost, over the last number of years, $800 billion a year.  Not a half a million dollars, not 12 cents.  We lost $800 billion a year on trade.  Not going to happen.  We got to get it back.<\/p>\n<p>And, of course, the biggest problem \u2014 the biggest problem is China.  We lost $500 billion.  How previous Presidents allowed that to happen is disgraceful.  But we\u2019re going to take care of it.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you all very much.  Thank you.<\/p>\n<p>Q   Talking about a trade war?<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  I don\u2019t think you\u2019ll have a trade war.<\/p>\n<p>Q    No trade war?<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  I don\u2019t think so.  I don\u2019t think you\u2019re going to have trade war, no.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Prime Minister Netanyahu, would you like to comment about the latest news coming from Israel?<\/p>\n<p>PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU:  I will later.  Thank you.<\/p>\n<p>PRESIDENT TRUMP:  Thank you all.  Thank you.  Thank you very much.  Thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. It\u2019s a great honor to have Prime Minister Netanyahu and Mrs. Netanyahu with us. They\u2019ve been friends for a long time. We have, I would say, probably the best relationships right now with Israel that we ever had. I think we\u2019re as close now as, maybe, ever before. 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