Washington — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting Thursday with congressional leaders on Capitol Hill, days after a meeting with President Trump that prompted widespread shock with the announcement of plans for the United States to “take over” the Gaza Strip.
Mr. Trump’s comments during a joint press conference with Netanyahu where he outlined a new vision for Gaza, saying the U.S. would “own it,” sent diplomatic shockwaves around the world.
Netanyahu, who praised Mr. Trump for having unconventional ideas, met Thursday with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and a bipartisan group of senators. Thune told reporters Wednesday in response to Mr. Trump’s announcement that the president “wants to bring a more peaceful and secure Middle East, and he’s putting some ideas out there.”
Appearing alongside the group of senators before the meeting, Netanyahu was asked whether U.S. troops are needed in Gaza, to which he replied, “no.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, told reporters after leaving the meeting that what Mr. Trump proposed “simply has no legs.”
“There’s general consensus that a forced evacuation of the Palestinians and United States troops on the ground are both unserious proposals as first articulated by President Trump and that they’re nonstarters, essentially,” Blumenthal said.
Thune reiterated his support for Israel earlier in the week, saying at the Senate GOP weekly news conference that “Israel is our closest ally in the Middle East,” while criticizing Democrats for boycotting Netanyahu’s remarks at the Capitol in the past — and blocking a measure to sanction the International Criminal Court over the decision to seek the arrests of top Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, over alleged war crimes.
“Republicans are here and ready when the Democrats decide it’s time to actually work in the interest of, in defending America’s greatest ally in the Middle East, Israel. Republicans have been consistent in doing that for the last year through the war with Hamas, Democrats have not,” Thune said. “We are ready to go to work and ensure that our allies’ interests all around the world are protected, and we hope at some point to have the Democrats join us in that effort.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, who is meeting with Netanyahu at the Capitol later Thursday, defended Mr. Trump’s Gaza proposal. Johnson said Wednesday that the announcement “was greeted by surprise by many, but cheer by I think people all around the world.”
“He’s taking bold decisive action to try to ensure the peace of that region,” Johnson said at a news conference, adding that “we’ve got to stand unequivocally” with Israel.
Netanyahu also met with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon on Wednesday. The Israeli prime minister’s visit to Washington comes amid a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that was negotiated in the final days of the Biden administration after a nearly 16-month Israeli assault on Hamas prompted by its terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.