While Netanyahu heads to Washington, Trump is already a tight ally

Before President Barack Obama had sworn in office in 2009, Benjamin Netanyahu called the Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas suddenly and asked for a lesson in what was essentially a foreign language: the language of the Democrats.

“I speak republican and you speak democratic and I need the intermediary,” said Netanyahu, who was about to become prime minister of Israel, according to Mr. Pinkas. He added: “Netanyahu has always thought of himself as a neocon pedigree that belongs to the right wing of the Republican party”.

Mr. Netanyahu, who will meet with President Trump On Monday at the White House, he conversed once again with his favorite party and the difference was clear.

Where former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had tried to put some restrictions on the Netanyahu military campaign in Gaza, the Trump administration did not ask this question. Where Mr. Biden criticized Mr. Netanyahu’s attempt by the courts of Israel, Trump made his own attacks against the American judges.

“They are not shaved,” said Natan Sachs, director of the Center for Middle East Policy and a senior member of the foreign policy program at the institution of Brookings. “Many concerns that the previous White House continued to do about humanitarian aid, the limitation of civil victims, these concerns are no longer expressed.”

The meeting during the meeting this week is a point of tension: the wide rates of Mr. Trump, who did not spare Israel. Mr. Netanyahu’s office said that the two men plan to discuss the tariff question, war in Gaza, Israeli-Turkey relationships, Iran and the international criminal court.

“I can tell you that I am the first international leader, the first foreign leader, who will meet President Trump on the question, which is so important for the Israeli economy,” said Natanyahu of the rates. “There is a long series of leaders who want it about their economies. I think it reflects the special personal bond, as well as the special ties between the United States and Israel.”

All recent American administrations have allied themselves at various levels with Israel, although Mr. Biden and Mr. Netanyahu had a long and complicated story. Mr. Biden referred to the Israeli leader as a “Close, personal friend of over 33 years“, And Mr. Netanyahu referred to Mr. Biden as” Irish American Zionist “.

Mr. Biden has also become frustrated by the conduct of Mr. Netanyahu in office, criticizing his review of the Judiciary of Israel. And the American president used vulgarity On how Israel made the war in Gaza in response to the terrorist attacks of 7 October by Hamas.

“You know more and more the perception of Israel all over the world is that you are a rogue state, a rogue actor,” Biden told Mr. Netanyahu, After an air attack in Iran.

There was a different reaction when Israel recently consulted the White House on air attacks through the Gaza Strip. The response of the Trump Administration? Give hell.

“The Trump administration and the White House were consulted by the Israelis for their attacks in Gaza,” said Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary of the White House, on Fox News, adding: “All those who try to terrorize, not only Israel, but also the United States of America, will see a price to pay.

The Israeli air attacks concluded a ceased temporary fire with Hamas who started in January and raised the prospect of a return to total war. More than 400 people, including children, were killed in the early hours of the strikes, said the Ministry of Health of Gaza.

Netanyahu and Trump have also found a common cause in their criticisms of the judges of their countries. Mr. Trump blocked himself against the judges who blocked some of the actions of his administration, including his invocation of war powers to accelerate deportations. He asked for a particular judge be accusedwhile Mr. Netanyahu rejoiced him.

“In America and Israel, when a strong right -wing leader wins the elections, the Deep State on the left wears the judicial system to counter the will of the people,” wrote Netanyahu on social media. “They don’t win in either of the two places! We are strong together.”

Elliott Abrams, an elderly member for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said that “much more confidence from the Israelis in the Trump Administration”.

“The vice-president, the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, the national security councilor, are all considered very pro-Israeli”, Abrams, who has worked in foreign policy positions for three republican presidents, including Trump. “And this was not true for the Biden administration, which was seen as nice, but inclined towards the detention of Israel.”

To tell the truth, Mr. Trump and Mr. Netanyahu had their ups and downs.

In the first term of Mr. Trump, Netanyahu made Mr. Trump angry with the rather harmless act of congratulating his successor, Mr. Biden, after the presidential elections in 2020.

But according to Mr. Netanyahu, Trump’s first presidency was an advantage for Israel. The American president has moved the United States Embassy to Jerusalem and paid little attention to the Palestinians while lined up with Israel on his statements on the Palestinian territory in the West Bank.

Then, immediately after the recovery of the charge, Mr. Trump I proposed that the United States should take control of Gaza And permanently move the entire Palestinian population of the devastated sea enclave, one of the most brazen ideas that any American leader has advanced on the region. Since then he has taken a certain distance from that proposal.

But his reflection on the mass removal of the Palestinians arrived during a meeting with Mr. Netanyahu, who smiled during the observations of Mr. Trump and later accumulated praise on him.

“You cut the chase,” said Netanyahu to Mr. Trump. “See things that others refuse to see. You say things that others refuse to say, and after the jaws have fallen, people scratch their heads and they say:” You know, it is right. “”

Many condemned the suggestion of Mr. Trump as immoral and illegal. But the polls showed right Israelis who constitute the base of Mr. Netanyahu has widely supported the idea and the American president was popular in Israel.

The fact that the base of Mr. Netanyahu supports Mr. Trump gives him a unique power in the country while Israel and Hamas negotiate the release of hostages and a ceased the fire, said Sachs.

“They fear more Trump and think it’s unpredictable,” said Sachs. “Direct interviews with Hamas, this has been done without Israeli knowledge. It is something that a more iconoclastic president like Trump is willing to do, and Israel is detested to cross it. He has more possibility of obtaining more with force any direction.”

Steven Witkoff, sent to the Middle East of Mr. Trump, was in the negotiations on the search for a new agreement of the fire. Netanyahu has selected Ron Dermer, an ex -Republican activist with close ties with Mr. Trump to participate in the fire interviews.

Mr. Witkoff sent a clear message to Hamas before the start of the air attacks: “President Trump clarified that Hamas will immediately release the hostages or pay a serious price”.

But while the war is unleashed once again with the blessing of Mr. Trump, the Trump administration will also begin to take the ownership of the war, said Ned Lazarus, associate professor of international business at the Elliot School of the George Washington University.

“Netanyahu has had conflicts with each of the multiple presidents of the United States, but it is obviously on much more friendly conditions with Trump. Listen to what Trump says,” he said. “This is a renewal of the war. This is Trump’s war.”