Calling Donald Trump the "best friend Israel ever had in the White House" the Israel parliament welcomed the American president hours after the remaining 20 living hostages were released to Israel as part of last week's brokered ceasefire deal. As Trump prepared to speak before the Knesset, 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel were being readied for their own release.
In the lead up to his remarks, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana thanked Trump for recognizing the capital of Israel as Jerusalem and for preventing Iran from being a nuclear power. He was then applauded for the day's hostage release. "You stand before the people of Israel, not as another American president, but as a giant of Jewish history, one for whom we must look back two and a half millennia into the mists of time to find a parallel. Cyrus the Great. Donald J Trump, you are a colossus who will join the pantheon of history."
"There is no single person on the planet who did more to pursue peace... in less than nine months you became one of the most consequential presidents in history," said Ohana, who said he and House Speaker Mike Johnson will be submitting a nomination for Trump to receive next year's Nobel Peace Prize. The 2025 recognition was bestowed on Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Machado last week.
Benjamin Netanyahu received a thunderous applause and a standing ovation when acknowledged in the Knesset audience, as did Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Rob Dermer and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. "Secretary of War" Pete Hegseth was also recognized, as was Steve Witkoff — who got an added chant: "Witkoff, Witkoff" — Jared Kushner and "absolute rock star" Mike Huckabee.
In his own remarks before Trump's speech, Netanyahu again ran down the litany of Trump's deeds for Israel, including recognizing the Golan Heights as Israeli, getting out of the Iran nuclear deal, the Abraham Accords, and bombing Iran in June. "Donald Trump is the greatest friend the state of Israel has ever had in the White House," he repeated, to chants of "Trump, Trump, Trump" in the audience.
Story is developing and will be updated with Trump's remarks.
