What Netanyahu’s return to the White House means for Gaza
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 748 Ratings
🗓️ 3 February 2025
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is heading to the US to meet with President Donald Trump. This is the first White House invitation to a foreign leader after Trump retook office. What does their renewed alliance mean for the world and for Gaza?
In this episode:
- Ali Harb (@Harbpeace), Al Jazeera Journalist
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Tamara Khandaker, Ashish Malhotra, and Chloe K. Li with Phillip Lanos, Spencer Cline, Hagir Saleh, Melanie Marich, and our guest host, Kevin Hirten. It was edited by Noor Wazwaz.
The Take production team is Marcos Bartolomé, Sonia Bhagat, Sarí el-Khalili, Tamara Khandaker, Phillip Lanos, Chloe K. Li, Ashish Malhotra, Khaled Soltan, Amy Walters, and Noor Wazwaz. Our editorial interns are Melanie Marich, Hagir Saleh and Hanah Shokeir. Our guest host is Kevin Hirten. Our engagement producers are Adam Abou-Gad and Vienna Maglio. Aya Elmileik is lead of audience engagement.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad al-Melhem. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Today, what's in store for Benjamin Netanyahu's return to the White House? |
| 0:17.1 | There are no permanent enemies or permanent friends. |
| 0:19.7 | There are permanent interests. |
| 0:22.6 | What Trump's rekindled alliance with Netanyahu and a new set of faces in Washington could mean for the future of Gaza. |
| 0:32.5 | I'm Kevin Horton, and this is the take. |
| 0:45.5 | Trump is seen as this dangerous person, and he's brought this fanatically, religiously committed to Israel team. |
| 0:51.8 | But the American government has been operating in this way before him, |
| 0:58.3 | and my prediction will operate in this way after him. |
| 1:03.8 | I am Ali Harb. I am a journalist for Al Jazeera English, based here in Washington, D.C., |
| 1:09.7 | where I cover U.S. politics, foreign policy, |
| 1:12.9 | and Arab American communities. |
| 1:15.7 | Okay, Ali, welcome back to the take. You said you're in Washington, and we're speaking just as |
| 1:22.2 | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Nanyahu is coming into town on Tuesday. We should say there's a warrant from the |
| 1:29.8 | international criminal court for his arrest, and the U.S. is one of the only a few countries that |
| 1:34.8 | will allow him to visit. He's the first foreign leader to visit this White House on invitation |
| 1:39.8 | from Donald Trump, which is actually a bit of a surprise because these two men have not been on the |
| 1:45.5 | best of terms. Trump was furious at Netanyahu for acknowledging that Joe Biden won in 2020. |
| 1:53.3 | So what's changed? How have they managed to reconcile? |
| 1:57.9 | So we saw Trump and Netanyahu have this very close, incredibly close relationship during |
| 2:04.2 | Trump's first term. And then when Netanyahu rushed to congratulate Biden on his election |
| 2:08.7 | win, Trump sort of became very angry and told an alexious journalist of Netanyahu, effin. But then as the election came journalist of Netanyahu, f-him. |
... |
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