Prime Minister Netanyahu Gifts President Trump Gold-Plated Beeper During Friendly Washington Meeting
‘That was a tremendous operation,’ Mr. Trump said in response, referencing Israel’s unprecedented exploding pager attack on Hezbollah in September.
Friendship bracelets are so yesterday. Prime Minister Netanyahu, during his meeting with President Trump on Tuesday, opted to gift his American ally a golden beeper, reminiscent of the kind that Israel used in its lethal operation against Hezbollah terrorists.
“That was a tremendous operation,” Mr. Trump said in response, referencing Israel’s unprecedented exploding pager attack on Hezbollah in September. Mr. Netanyahu reportedly offered the American leader both a gold-plated pager along with a standard one.
In return, Mr. Trump gave the Israeli prime minister a picture of the two of them that was taken during the visit, inscribed with the message, “To Bibi, a great leader.”
The pager attack, during which Israel simultaneously detonated explosives hidden in thousands of pages given to members of Hezbollah, left some 3,000 terrorists injured and sent shock waves through the terrorist organization. The explosives, which were concealed in the pagers’ batteries long before they reached Lebanon, went undetected by Hezbollah for months.
The Lebanon-based terror group suffered another blow the following day when thousands of walkie talkies exploded in a similar fashion. The mission was a joint operation by Israel’s intelligence agency, the Mossad, and the Israeli military and put on display Israel’s cyberwarfare prowess.
Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Trump’s meeting, which marked the first visit by a foreign leader to the White House during this administration, continued late into the evening on Tuesday. The two leaders shared a one-on-one meeting followed by a two-hour long dinner. During the trip, Mr. Trump provided Mr. Netanyahu with a tour of the White House and even brought him to see the Lincoln Bedroom, which the Israeli leader had never seen in his 12 visits to the White House.
An Israeli source who traveled to Washington with Mr. Netanyahu told Jewish Insider that the meeting with Mr. Trump “went beyond our expectations and dreams” and that it was “the friendliest meeting ever between an American president and a prime minister of Israel.”
