January 1, Trump: Netanyahu ‘Never Wanted Peace’ with Palestine

Former President Trump said he believes former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu never wanted to establish peace with the Palestinians during his 12-year tenure.

“I don’t think Bibi ever wanted to make peace,” Trump told Axios journalist Barak Ravid in an interview, using Netanyahu’s nickname. “I think he just tapped us along. Just tap, tap, tap, you know?”

“My whole life is deals. I’m like one big deal. That’s all I do, so I understand it,” Trump said. “And after meeting with Bibi for three minutes … I stopped Bibi in the middle of a sentence. I said, ‘Bibi, you don’t want to make a deal. Do you?’ And he said, ‘Well, uh, uh uh’ — and the fact is, I don’t think Bibi ever wanted to make a deal.”

Early in his presidency, Trump realized that Netanyahu posed a larger obstacle to establishing peace than the Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

“I thought he was terrific,” Trump said, referring to Abbas. “He was almost like a father. Couldn’t have been nicer. I thought he wanted to make a deal more than Netanyahu.”

Ravid’s interview with Trump, published Monday, was for his new book, Trump’s Peace: The Abraham Accords and the Reshaping of the Middle East.

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Trump says Netanyahu “never wanted peace” with the Palestinians