Netanyahu used golf metaphor to turn Trump against Palestinians, book says

Source: The Guardian

Netanyahu used golf metaphor to turn Trump against Palestinians, book says

In new memoir, former Israeli PM describes efforts to turn US president against Palestinian leader Abbas

Martin Pengelly in New York
@MartinPengelly
Sat 15 Oct 2022 07.01 BST
Last modified on Sat 15 Oct 2022 11.13 BST

Benjamin Netanyahu used maps of Hezbollah missile sites and intelligence gained from a Mossad raid in Tehran to make sure Donald Trump backed Israel in Middle East peace talks and pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, the former Israeli prime minister writes in a new memoir.

But in unconventional scenes similar to those in countless books of reportage and Trump tell-alls, Netanyahu also says that to sway Trump from his desire to pursue peace between Israel and the Palestinians and to scotch his positive first impression of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, the Israelis deployed golfing metaphors and maps of New York City.

The Palestinians, Trump was told, were hostile and wanted a border as close to Tel Aviv as the George Washington Bridge is to Trump Tower. A lasting peace, Trump was told, was as likely as “a hole-in-one through a brick wall”.

The former and possibly future Israeli leader’s book, Bibi: My Story, will be published in the US on Tuesday. The Guardian obtained a copy.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/14/benjamin-netanyahu-golf-donald-trump-palestinians-israel-peace-book