Former Israel PM Netanyahu says he turned Trump against Palestine using golf metaphors

Benjamin Netanyahu used golf metaphors and New York City similes to turn former US President Donald Trump against Palestinians and push him towards a stronger Israeli backing, the former Israeli premier's memoir reportedly details.

Israel's ex-prime minister – who served between 2009 to 2021 – revealed his tactics to destroy Trump’s positive first impressions of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in his new memoir 'Bibi: My Story', seen by British daily The Guardian prior to its publication in the US on Tuesday.

During Trump’s run as president from 2017 to 2021, the US controversially moved its embassy to Jerusalem, recognised Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, and brokered the Abraham Accords, which normalised ties between Israel and four Arab states in 2020.

In his memoir, Netanyahu described an account by the then-US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, who related that Trump blurted out "Bibi doesn’t want peace" during his first meeting in Israel in 2017.

To "adjust his thinking about Mahmoud Abbas", Netanyahu and Friedman played Trump a video portraying Abbas as two-faced, talking about peace in English, and reportedly praising terrorists in Arabic.

Trump, an avid golfer, was also told that Palestinians were hostile and wanted a border as close to Tel Aviv as the George Washington Bridge is to the Trump Tower, and that lasting peace was as likely as "a hole-in-one through a brick wall".

Netanyahu could return to power in Israel's upcoming election, despite being on trial for corruption charges.