Trump and Clinton both meet Netanyahu to discuss future of US-Israel ties

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton each met privately with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday, one day before the candidates square off in their first presidential debate.

Trump “discussed at length Israel’s successful experience with a security fence that helped secure its borders” with Netanyahu in a meeting at the candidate’s home in Trump Tower that lasted longer than an hour, according to a statement from the Republican presidential nominee’s campaign.

Clinton, who held her own hour-long meeting later in the day with the Israeli leader at his hotel, pledged “to take our partnership to the next level,” her campaign said in a statement.

Trump’s proposal to build a wall on the US border with Mexico as way to confront illegal immigration has become a cornerstone of his campaign, although the statement did not say whether he drew direct parallels with Israel’s border fence, which is meant to combat terrorism.

The real estate investor also “acknowledged that Jerusalem has been the eternal capital of the Jewish People for over 3,000 years, and that the United States, under a Trump administration, will finally accept the long-standing Congressional mandate to recognise Jeru

salem as the undivided capital of the State of Israel,” his campaign said after Sunday’s meeting.

Palestinians claim all of east Jerusalem, including the Old City’s holy places, for the capital of a future state, while the current Israeli government says the city is its capital and won’t cede any of its eastern sector, which was annexed after a 1967 war in a move that isn’t internationally recognised. As a result, the US and most other countries maintain embassies instead in Tel Aviv, although the US Congress has periodically tried to move it.

During this year’s Republican presidential primaries several hopefuls, including Trump, advocated the move, which U.S. presidents have blocked for more than 20 years.