Book: Netanyahu showed Trump likely doctored video of Abbas backing child murder
Bob Woodward says US president wondered in 2017 whether Israeli PM was obstacle to peace, until Netanyahu showed him clip, which Rex Tillerson believed had been crudely fabricated
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2017 showed US President Donald Trump a potentially doctored video in which Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas seemed to call for the murder of children, in order to sway the American leader to the Israeli side, according journalist Bob Woodward’s explosive new book on the administration, “Rage.”
Reporting on excerpts from the book, set to be released next week, Jewish Insider and The Independent said that early on in his presidency, Trump began to waver in his support for Netanyahu.
The US president was having “doubts about Netanyahu and wondering aloud if the Israeli prime minister might be the real problem,” according to Woodward. “Trump had even earlier said to Netanyahu on a Washington visit that he believed he was the obstacle to peace, not Abbas.”
Then, when Trump came to Israel in May 2017, Netanyahu presented him with a video of Abbas in which “it sounded like Abbas was ordering the murder of children.”
Rage by Bob Woodward
Netanyahu wondered: “And that’s the guy you want to help?”
Trump was disturbed by the video and called in then-secretary of state Rex Tillerson to watch the clip.
“Watch this! This is unbelievable! You’ve got to see this,” he said.
Tillerson watched the clip, but was highly skeptical. He later said he believed it had been crudely cut together using various bits of speech by Abbas.
After Netanyahu left the room, Tillerson told Trump: “Mr. President, you realize that the whole thing was fabricated?”
https://www.timesofisrael.com/book-netanyahu-showed-trump-likely-doctored-video-of-abbas-backing-child-murder/#gs.fyyph2