Takeaways from Netanyahu’s Visit to Miami

I had to laugh when President Trump said at a press conference yesterday in Miami that, except for two prime ministers of Israel, Netanyahu and one other not named, if any of the other 12 prime ministers had been in office these past two years, there would no longer be an Israel. Seriously?

He conveniently forgot that the debacle that was October 7^th occurred on Netanyahu’s watch, for which he continues to deny responsibility. Frankly, with a few very rare exceptions, at some time in their tenure, our prime ministers have all risen to the challenges that faced them so that Israel could not only survive but actually thrive.

And thrive we did, even in the face of the challenges of a two-year war that drained some of our top entrepreneurs from the business community. For example, in the midst of everything we are dealing with here, five Israeli startup exits worth a combined $75 billion defined 2025, to wit:

• Wiz – Acquired by Google ($32 Billion)
• CyberArk – Acquired by Palo Alto Networks ($25 Billion)
• Armis – Acquired by ServiceNow ($7.75 Billion)
• Navan (formerly TripActions) – IPO ($6.2 Billion)
• eToro – IPO ($4.4 Billion)

If just ten years ago you walked up to someone on the street and said that there will come a day when an Israeli company will be valued at $32 billion, the person would have laughed. After all, that is just one company with a valuation of 5% of the country’s GDP. Amazing to be sure.

Israel is, of course, always at risk and has been since independence was declared in 1948. Yet in spite of wars, boycotts, terror attacks, and the rising levels of anti-Israel and antisemitic incidents worldwide, Israel has thrived under all of its prime ministers.

Next on the agenda in Miami was the comment when asked by a reporter about a potential pardon for Netanyahu, to which Trump responded: “I spoke with President Herzog about this and it is on the way.” Really?

Overnight, Israeli President Herzog issued a strong denial that he had not had a conversation with Trump about this and that it is being handled according to Israeli judicial law. Of course, as the polls show, the population here is overwhelmingly in favor of the president granting the pardon on the condition that, after 18 years in power, Netanyahu, at 76, agrees to leave politics.

Predictably, he has said he intends to run again in the elections of 2026, sending out the message that there is no room in the leadership of this country for younger blood. It’s an amazing side fact, but the people going into the IDF this year have never lived in an Israel where Netanyahu was not Prime Minister.

Later, it was reported that as Netanyahu and Trump met, they spoke on the phone with Yoav Kisch, Israel’s Minister of Education, who told the US president that he would win the Israel Prize. Trump said that he would consider attending the ceremony.

I have no doubt that Kisch said that, but there are some legal problems associated with giving it to Trump.

The Israel Prize is awarded in four main areas that rotate sub-fields, encompassing Humanities, Social Sciences & Jewish Studies; Life & Exact Sciences; Culture, Arts, Communication and Sports along with Lifetime Achievement & Exceptional Contribution to the Nation, recognizing excellence in Israeli society, though special wartime categories like “Societal Responsibility” and “Citizen Heroism” were added temporarily in 2024.

According to law, winners are Israeli citizens recognized for outstanding achievements or contributions to Israeli culture and state, chosen by ministerial-appointed committees.

Given that Trump is not an Israeli citizen, he is not eligible to receive the award; it is not clear that he would fall into any of the categories above, and it is not the decision of the minister of education to pick the winners, although that last item is least problematic in this country, where such procedures are regularly bypassed.

There were plenty of other statements that were questionable and, as always in these press gaggles, it is rare for any reporter to rise and challenge an incorrect statement of the President. It remains a mystery to me that over the past few weeks when he bragged about bringing the price of prescription drugs down by 600%, even 1,000%, that no one in the room pointed out the mathematical impossibility of dropping prices on anything more than 100%.

Like Gulliver leading the Lilliputians, everyone falls into line and remains silent while suppressing their criticism.

Let us hope that our prime minister realized his objectives for Israel in the Miami meeting so that we can enter 2026 confident of our future success.