Netanyahu Uses Trump Photo in Election Billboards

A giant billboard of a smiling Donald Trump shaking hands with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu loomed over a main entrance to Tel Aviv and in Yerushalayim on Sunday, part of the Israeli leader’s re-election campaign.

Trump is popular in Israel because of his tough policies towards the Palestinians and Iran and his transfer last May of the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Yerushalayim, which he recognized as Israel’s capital.

“Netanyahu. In another league,” reads the Hebrew-language billboard, in a swipe at the caliber of the veteran prime minister’s opponents in the upcoming national election.

A spokesman for Netanyahu’s Likud party, whose logo adorns the signs, did not immediately respond to a Reuters query on whether the White House had authorized it to use the photograph.

Netanyahu is favorite to win the election but opinion polls show one of his toughest challengers, former general Benny Gantz, making gains.