On NBC’s ‘Meet the Press,’ The Israeli prime minister-designate praised Trump for ‘all he has done for Israel,’ but criticized his refusal to disavow his dinner companions Kanye West and Nick Fuentes
Prime Minister designate-Benjamin Netanyahu said that former U.S. President Donald Trump’s unwillingness to distance himself from antisemitic figures is “not merely unacceptable. It’s just wrong.”
Netanyahu’s remarks came in an interview with NBC “Meet the Press” on Sunday, in response to a dinner that Trump hosted at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida with antisemite Kanye West and fringe-right media personality Nick Fuentes late last month. Fuentes has been deemed a “white supremacist” by the Justice Department.
On “Meet the Press,” Netanyahu was quick to praise Trump for “great things [that he did] for Israel,” including recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and its sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, and for Trump’s withdrawal from the “disastrous Iran deal,” as Netanyahu put it, a reference to the 2015 agreement between Iran and world powers over the Islamic republic’s nuclear program.
When pressed on Trump’s embrace of antisemitic figures, Netanyahu said, “I hope he sees his way to stand out of it and condemns it,” and added that Trump, with whom he was closely allied when the two were in office at the same time, “probably understands that it crosses a line.”
The prime-minister-designate was also asked about concerns that have been expressed regarding far-right leaders, including Itamar Ben-Gvir of the Otzma Yehudit party, with whom he is negotiating over the formation of a coalition government.
“I’m not sure I characterize them the way you do, but I will say this: On Ben-Gvir, the [Israeli] Supreme Court looked into the matter of his eligibility. They decided categorically that he could [run],” he said. “We just had a government with a party that was beholden to the Muslim Brotherhood, that don’t believe in any democratic values, LGBT rights, women’s rights and so,” Netanyahu replied, referring to Mansour Abbas’ United Arab List.
On the threat of rolling back LGBT rights in Israel, Netanyahu categorically said, “I won’t accept any of that.” He also downplayed concerns about narrowing eligibility for Israeli citizenship and the right to immigrate to Israel among Jews and members of their families who may not be Jewish. “I doubt we will have any changes.”
In an interview with American journalist Bari Weiss last week, Netanyahu, who appears to have secured a return to power in Israel’s November 1 election, said: “I condemned Kanye West’s antisemitic statements. Straight away, I thought that was just wrong and misplaced. And I think that that’s what I would say about President Trump’s decision to dine with this person. I think it’s wrong and misplaced. I think it’s a mistake. He shouldn’t do that.” Netanyahu also described Trump as “irreverent.”
Bipartisan lawmakers, organizations and Jewish officials roundly condemned the former president’s hosting of West and Fuentes. The meeting – perhaps Trump’s most notable association with extremists with histories of explicit antisemitic remarks – threw his nascent 2024 presidential campaign into turmoil, with many former allies directly calling out Trump over the meeting.
Responding on Twitter shortly after Trump maintained his refusal to condemn his dinner guests, Trump’s successor as president, Joe Biden, said, “I just want to make a few things clear: The Holocaust happened. Hitler was a demonic figure. And instead of giving it a platform, our political leaders should be calling out and rejecting antisemitism wherever it hides. Silence is complicity.”
One of the best-selling rappers of all time, Kanye West was temporarily suspended from Meta for antisemitic remarks during an interview with Tucker Carlson on Fox News. He has since doubled down on increasingly-virulent antisemitism, which recently culminated in praise for Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
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