One in all former President Donald J. Trump’s closest overseas coverage advisers, Robert O’Brien, met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Monday as a part of a delegation of former Trump officers that visited numerous Israeli leaders.
Mr. O’Brien, who served as nationwide safety adviser to Mr. Trump and is anticipated to play a major function in any second Trump administration, was joined within the conferences by two different former Trump officers — the previous ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, John Rakolta, and the previous ambassador to Switzerland, Ed McMullen. The members of the delegation had been described by Marshall Wittmann, a spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobbying group whose affiliate, the American Israel Schooling Basis, funded and arranged the journey.
In a short telephone interview, Mr. O’Brien mentioned he had needed to go to Israel ever for the reason that Hamas-led assault on Oct. 7 to precise his “solidarity for Israel and the Jewish individuals.”
Mr. O’Brien mentioned Mr. Trump was conscious of his journey to Israel, however he mentioned the previous president had not requested him to go or directed him to say something to Mr. Netanyahu. He mentioned he was there as a “non-public citizen,” including that he did specific his view to Mr. Netanyahu that the Hamas terrorist assault would by no means have occurred if Mr. Trump had been nonetheless president.
Requested whether or not Mr. Netanyahu additionally expressed these views about Mr. Trump, Mr. O’Brien mentioned: “He’s a professional, and he understands he wants good relations with the Biden administration. However that was my sentiment.”
The previous Trump administration officers and Mr. Netanyahu met on Monday not lengthy after the Worldwide Prison Court docket’s prosecutor in The Hague sought arrest warrants for Mr. Netanyahu, his protection chief and three Hamas leaders on prices of crimes towards humanity.
Mr. O’Brien mentioned he advised Mr. Netanyahu that the choice by the I.C.C. prosecutor was a “shame,” and he reminded the Israeli chief of the Trump administration’s resolution to impose sanctions on the Worldwide Prison Court docket in 2020.
“I’ve spent my total profession as a world lawyer and I’m sickened by this prosecutor,” Mr. O’Brien mentioned. “If he’s actually involved a couple of genocide he should be trying on the C.C.P. and the Uighurs,” he added, referring to the Chinese language Communist Social gathering’s oppression of Muslims within the far western area of Xinjiang.
Mr. O’Brien and the opposite former Trump officers met with a number of different Israeli policymakers, together with the protection minister, Yoav Gallant, and Benny Gantz, a centrist member of Israel’s struggle cupboard who’s more and more at odds with Mr. Netanyahu.
The delegation additionally visited two websites of the Hamas terrorist assaults on Oct. 7: the Nir Oz kibbutz and the sector in southern Israel, near the Gaza border, the place younger Israelis had been murdered whereas dancing at a music pageant.
Mr. Wittmann, the AIPAC spokesman, mentioned the journey was deliberate a number of months in the past and the group had organized and funded visits to Israel for former officers from each Democratic and Republican administrations.
