Gifts exchanged by US, Israeli leaders show nature of their ties

OFF THE BEATEN TRACK

The golden pager Benjamin Netanyahu presented to Donald Trump

A REPORT published by a well-known international news organisation, which divulged details of the gifts that US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exchanged during their recent meeting in Washington, simply showed the nature of the relations that most American presidents have with Israeli premiers, according to analysts.

The report written by Mick Krever and published by CNN said that Prime Minister Netanyahu presented a golden pager to President Trump while the latter gifted to the former a signed photograph of the two. According to analysts, the golden pager was meant to be a reminder of the deadly operation carried out by Israel last year in which pagers used by members of the militant group Hezbollah were targeted in Lebanon.

On Sept 17, pagers of many Hezbollah members exploded and a day later their walkie-talkies met the same fate. The blasts killed at least 37 people, including some children, and injured nearly 3,000, according to Lebanese health authorities.

Trump gave Netanyahu a signed photograph of the two of them. He captioned the photograph as, “To Bibi, A great leader!,” according to an image posted on Instagram by the Israeli PM’s son, Yair Netanyahu.

The analysts said the Israeli leader’s gift was a “boastful reminder” of the deadly Israeli operation that eliminated dozens of anti-Israel militants. Israel was criticised widely after the “pager operation” but has never claimed responsibility for it. The gift to Trump apparently is the closest it will ever come to owning it up.

On the other hand, Trump’s gift seemed like an act of appeasement, particularly the signed note attached to it.

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