Israel’s diplomats are walking back Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s praise for President Trump’s proposed border wall.
“The Israel-Sinai border is not comparable to the border between Mexico and the US,” Jonathan Peled, the Israeli ambassador to Mexico, tweeted Saturday in Spanish. “Our closed border is configured with a view to the prevention of terror and is [sui generis].”
Netanyahu hailed the border wall as a “great idea” on Saturday morning in a tweet that received widespread attention. “President Trump is right,” he tweeted, two days after Trump cited the Israeli border security as an argument in favor of building a wall on the southern border. “I built a wall along Israel’s southern border. It stopped all illegal immigration. Great success. Great idea.”
That message angered the Mexican government, however. “Senior officials in Mexico’s Foreign Ministry called Israel’s Embassy in Mexico City on Saturday to voice strong protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu comments on the border wall between America and Mexico on behalf of its Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray,” Haaretz reported Saturday afternoon.
That pushback prompted Israel to walk back Netanyahu’s statement. “[Netanyahu] referred to our specific security experience which we are willing to share,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon tweeted. “We do not express a position on US- Mexico relations.”
