Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Did Melania Just Slap Donald’s Hand Away On Israel Red Carpet?

Did Melania Trump just send a not-so-subtle message to the Donald?

The First Lady was caught on tape apparently trying to avoid holding hands with her hubby as they arrived at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, strode along holding hands, as they often do along the tarmac.

President Trump, walking alongside them, reached out to grasp the First Lady’s hand. But video circulated on Twitter appeared to show Melania Trump briefly flicking his hand away.

Sara Netanyahu later offered sympathetic words to the Trumps, telling them that people still loved them despite negative media coverage.

“The majority of the people of Israel, unlike the media, they love us, so we tell them how you are great and they love you,” Sara said to Trump and his wife.

Trump then interjected: “We have something very much in common.”

Netanyahu and his wife have a tense relationship with the Israeli media, which they have both described as biased against them.

Testifying in a libel suit the Netanyahus filed against an Israeli journalist, Sara Netanyahu told the court: “Everything that is published about me, it’s all lies, evil lies that bear no connection with who I really am.”—With Reuters

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.