TEL AVIV, Israel, Dec. 9 (UPI) — GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump is still on for a trip to Israel and a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, despite calls from Israeli politicians to cancel the visit.
Trump tweeted Wednesday that he is “very much looking forward” to the Israel trip.
Nentanyahu’s administration told Haaretz the Prime Minister is willing to meet with any candidate who travels to Israel. Meanwhile 37 Knesset members signed a letter Wednesday calling on Netanyahu to block the meeting and condemn Trump’s proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States.
The letter was drafted by MK Michal Rozin. “While leaders around the world condemn the Republican presidential candidate’s racist and outrageous remarks, Netanyahu is warmly embracing him,” Rozin told Haaretz. “Their meeting in the end of the month backs up [Trump’s] racist statements, thus disgracing Israel’s democratic character and hurting its Muslim citizens.”
Among the signatories on the letter is MK Ahmad Tibi, who called Trump a “neo-Nazi” and asked that he not be admitted to the Knesset. Even members of Netanyahu’s own Likud party have condemned Trump’s remarks
The mogul’s proposal has earned him a hefty backlash at home and abroad. Everyone from his GOP and Democratic opponents, to heads of state in Britain and France piled on to condemn Trump’s remarks Monday and Tuesday. The New York Times reports Egypt’s highest religious authority slammed Trump as an “extremist.”
After decades of tension between Israel and Egypt, Arutz Sheva reported relations may be warming between the two nations as they face common foes, such as ISIS. Netanyahu has not commented on Trump’s proposal.
