Benjamin Netanyahu brings Donald Trump into Likud election campaign

This is not the first time US President Donald Trump was brought in to support Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Updated: FEBRUARY 3, 2019 15:52
US President Donald Trump meets with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington in March. (photo credit: REUTERS)
US President Donald Trump meets with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington in March.
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brought in a major figure to make a cameo appearance in the Likud campaign: US President Donald Trump.
In a new video released by the Likud campaign on Thursday morning, a text appears on the screen stating: “They said it’s impossible.”
Netanyahu is seen in a cabinet meeting saying: “The US embassy needs to be here, in Jerusalem.”
Then, a clip of Trump’s appears from May 14, 2018, saying: “Today, we officially opened the US Embassy in Jerusalem. Congratulations.”
The video ends with the Likud’s new slogan: “Netanyahu: In another league.”
This is not the first time that Trump was brought in to support Netanyahu. Before the 2013 Knesset election, then-Likud activist Jonny Daniels produced a Trump endorsement video for the prime minister.
“My name is Donald Trump, and I’m a big fan of Israel,” he said, with the label “Donald Trump: Entrepreneur” at the bottom of the screen.
“And frankly, a strong prime minister is a strong Israel, and you truly have a great prime minister in Benjamin Netanyahu – there’s nobody like him,” Trump added. “He’s a winner, he’s highly respected, he’s highly thought of by all and people really do have great, great respect for what’s happening in Israel.
“So vote for Benjamin, terrific guy, terrific leader, great for Israel,” Trump concluded.
Daniels, who is well-connected in Republican circles, revealed behind-the-scenes details of how he got the Trump video for the Likud to The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.
Daniels recounted that “Trump loves Bibi. He was all for making this. It was much harder to convince Chuck Norris,” he said, noting the action star who also made an endorsement video for Netanyahu that year.
“Netanyahu first heard about this on the news, and thought it was the funniest thing,” Daniels said.
However, during the debates between Republican candidates ahead of the 2016 election, Netanyahu’s view on the matter changed. Trump mentioned the video in one of the debates and falsely claimed “my friend Bibi asked me” to make it, much to the prime minister’s consternation.
Netanyahu’s main concern was a repeat of the 2012 US elections, where he was seen as having supported Republican candidate, now-Utah Senator Mitt Romney, to the detriment of his relationship with president Barack Obama for the subsequent four years.
“Netanyahu’s people asked me to bury the video,” Daniels said. “But it’s not like I could just delete it and it’ll go away. The internet doesn’t work like that.”