Pressmediaofindia
Related Articles
10-02-2025
WASHINGTON/ JERUSALEM: Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly gave Donald Trump a “golden pager” during their meeting in Washington DC this week, in an apparent reference to Israel’s deadly attack against Hezbollah in Lebanon last year.
In photos circulating online, the golden pager can be seen mounted on a piece of wood, accompanied by a golden plaque that reads in black lettering: “To President Donald J. Trump, Our greatest friend and greatest ally. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”
Israeli media reported that the Israeli prime minister, who is wanted by the international criminal court for war crimes, also gave the US president a regular pager.
The gift was reportedly a nod to Israel’s deadly operation last September against Hezbollah, during which thousands of handheld pager beeper devices and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah detonated simultaneously across Lebanon.
The explosions killed at least 37 people, including children as young as nine years old, and left thousands wounded.
An Israeli official told the Associated Press that upon receiving the golden pager from Netanyahu, Trump, responded: “That was a major operation.”
According to a photo shared on Instagram by Yair Netanyahu, Netanyahu’s son, Trump gave Netanyahu a signed photograph of the two of them. Trump wrote on the photo: “To Bibi, A great leader!” Netanyahu met with Trump on Tuesday on a visit which was rapidly overshadowed by Trump’s apparently off-the-cuff suggestion that the US would “take over” Gaza and resettle the Palestinian population elsewhere.
On 4th February, Donald Trump has said Palestinians have “no alternative” but to leave Gaza due to the devastation left by Israel’s war on Hamas, in effect endorsing ethnic cleansing of the territory over the opposition of Palestinians and neighboring countries. Speaking as he prepared to host Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Tuesday, Trump repeated the suggestion that Gaza’s population should be relocated to Jordan and Egypt something both countries have firmly rejected. Trump claimed Palestinians would “love to leave Gaza”, telling reporters: “I would think that they would be thrilled.”
After 16 months of devastating war with Israel, Trump said Gaza was “a pure demolition site”.
“I don’t think people should be going back to Gaza. Gaza is not a place for people to be living, and the only reason they want to go back, and I believe this strongly, is because they have no alternative… If they had an alternative, they’d much rather not go back to Gaza and live in a beautiful alternative that’s safe,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.
“If we could find the right piece of land, or numerous pieces of land, and build them some really nice places with plenty of money in the area, that’s for sure. I think that would be a lot better than going back to Gaza,” he said.
When asked where such places might be, he suggested they could be in Jordan, Egypt or “other places. You could have more than two.
“You’d have people living in a place that could be very beautiful, and safe and nice. Gaza’s been a disaster for decades.”
Asked about the reaction of Palestinian and other Arab leaders to his proposal, Trump said: “I don’t know how they could want to stay.”
Sitting alongside Netanyahu, Trump was questioned by reporters whether Palestinians would have the right to return to Gaza if they left while the rebuilding was happening. The president replied: “It would be my hope that we could do something really nice, really good, where they wouldn’t want to return. Why would they want to return?” (Int’l News Desk)
