Despite long history with Netanyahu, Trump hedges as Israel vote nears
Washington, DC, United States – Since first entering the White House in 2017, US President Donald Trump has delivered on a right-wing Israeli wish list and pursued a foreign policy that has helped buoy Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political fortunes.
The Israeli leader has, in turn, portrayed himself as the best steward of Israel’s most significant foreign relationship, weathering a handful of public criticisms and leaked discontents from Trump that have yielded little concrete policy change.
But despite the pair’s long history, Trump has so far taken a decidedly ho-hum approach to the October 27 Israeli election. The vote sees Netanyahu’s Likud party and the far-right coalition it leads under increasing threat from Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot and an opposition bloc he seeks to build.
It is an – at least public – ambivalence likely fuelled by shifting political winds in both the US and Israel, as well as the evolving relationship between Trump and Netanyahu, according to Yousef Munayyer, head of the Palestine/Israel programme at the Arab Center Washington DC.
“He seems to be keeping greater distance from it than you would think,” Munayyer told Al Jazeera, “given Trump’s past endorsements of right-wing allies, given the history of the Trump-Netanyahu relationship, and just how close Trump and Netanyahu have been”.
