Report: Trump team wants Netanyahu at inauguration

President-elect Donald Trump's transition team, led by Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, has been pushing for Netanyahu to attend the January 20th festivities.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Updated: JANUARY 1, 2017 10:51
Trump: "We have to protect Israel"
US President-elect Donald Trump's team has "aggressively courted" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to attend the incoming president's January 20 inauguration, according to a report on Saturday by the New York Post.
President-elect Donald Trump's transition team, led by Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, has been pushing for Netanyahu to attend the January 20th festivities and for the two world leaders to meet before then, a source told the Post.
"There's a plan for Trump to meet with Netanyahu," said the source. "They're talking all the time. And Netanyahu is talking about possibly going to the inauguration."
Earlier in December, Netanyahu spoke warmly of Trump in a CBS interview.  “His attitude, his support for Israel is clear. He feels very warmly about the Jewish state, about the Jewish people and about Jewish people. There is no question about that,” he said.
Last week, Trump spoke out in defense of Israel regarding the recent UN security council resolution condemning settlements and Secretary of State John Kerry's speech on Middle East peace.
Speaking to press outside of his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump said that he and Kerry "have different views." Later on during the conference, the president-elect said that "Israel has been treated very, very unfairly by a lot of different people." He criticized the UN for its harsh stance on Israel, charging that the body had meanwhile failed to reprimand "horrible places that treat people horribly."
Trump also addressed Israel prior to Kerry's speech, writing on Twitter: "[Israel] used to have a great friend in the U.S., but... not anymore. The beginning of the end was the horrible Iran deal, and now this (U.N.)!"
He also criticized the White House for its treatment of Israel over the course of the last eight years.
“We cannot continue to let Israel be treated with such total disdain and disrespect,” the president-elect tweeted, noting both Resolution 2334 as well as the Obama administration’s role in brokering an international nuclear deal with Iran.
“Stay strong Israel, January 20th is fast approaching!”