Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly gave Donald Trump a “golden pager” during their meeting in Washington DC this week, in an apparent reference to Israel’s deadly attack against Hezbollah in Lebanon last year.
In photos circulating online, the golden pager can be seen mounted on a piece of wood, accompanied by a golden plaque that reads in black lettering: “To President Donald J. Trump, Our greatest friend and greatest ally. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”
Israeli media reported that the Israeli prime minister, who is wanted by the international criminal court for war crimes, also gave the US president a regular pager.
The gift was reportedly a nod to Israel’s deadly operation last September against Hezbollah, during which thousands of handheld pager beeper devices and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah detonated simultaneously across Lebanon.
The explosions killed at least 37 people, including children as young as nine years old, and left thousands wounded.
An Israeli official told the Associated Press that upon receiving the golden pager from Netanyahu, Trump, responded: “That was a major operation.”
According to a photo shared on Instagram by Yair Netanyahu, Netanyahu’s son, Trump gave Netanyahu a signed photograph of the two of them. Trump wrote on the photo: “To Bibi, A great leader!”
Netanyahu met with Trump on Tuesday on a visit which was rapidly overshadowed by Trump’s apparently off-the-cuff suggestion that the US would “take over” Gaza and resettle the Palestinian population elsewhere.
