The dispute over the wall President Donald Trump says he will build on the US-Mexico border, as well as over his insistence that Mexico will pay for it, has eroded relations between the US and its southern neighbour.
It’s also set off rounds of sniping between US and Mexican leadership, turning Twitter into a new venue for international diplomacy.
Thus far, the spat has been limited to the US and Mexico, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has become embroiled after he posted a tweet lauding the proposed border wall.
Netanyahu, a Trump booster, compared Trump’s border wall to the wall Israel has constructed along its southern border with Egypt. Netanyahu held it up as a smart move against illegal immigration.
Trump has praised the wall Israel constructed, but Mexicans — Jew and gentile, government and private citizen — did not take kindly to the comparison.
“The Secretariat of Foreign Relations expressed to the government of Israel … its profound sadness, rejection, and disappointment over the Twitter message of Prime Minister Netanyahu regarding the construction of a border wall,” Mexico’s foreign ministry said in a statement issued on Saturday.
“Mexico is a friend of Israel, and should be treated as such by its Prime Minister,” the statement continued, before saying regarding International Holocaust Remembrance Day: “Mexico and Israel share a historical rejection of racism and xenophobia and Mexico will continue working closely with Israel to combat any form of discrimination in the world.”
Read the full article by Christopher Woody at Business Insider Australia.