By Andreas Kluth / Bloomberg Opinion
This is a bad week for Israel, and by all appearances that’s just fine with the U.S. president.
Like the former reality TV star that he is, Donald Trump has choreographed several plot lines to send a single message: He will do whatever he thinks will redound to his own glory, even if that means freezing out Benjamin Netanyahu.
It’s hardly a coincidence that Hamas, the terrorist organization that Israel has been pounding in the Gaza Strip since October 2023, released its last living hostage bearing a U.S. passport just as Trump set off to the Middle East on a trip that includes three Arab countries but conspicuously omits Israel. In March, his administration had rejected a similar offer from Hamas, deferring to the Israeli fear of being cut out of the negotiations and disadvantaging the two dozen other hostages still believed to be alive. This time, the U.S. didn’t care.
It was a similar story last week, when Trump abruptly announced that the U.S. would stop bombing the Houthis in Yemen. “We hit them very hard,” the president said. “They gave us their word that they wouldn’t be shooting ships anymore, and we honor that.” Left unsaid was that the Houthis had just fired missiles at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, and that he hadn’t consulted the Israeli prime minister.
Trump also blindsided Netanyahu in dealing with Tehran. Bibi insists on completely dismantling Iran’s nuclear operations and wants to bomb its centrifuges and other facilities; with U.S. help. Trump wants to avoid war and be feted as a “peacemaker” (ideally with a Nobel Prize). “I want to make a deal with Iran,” Trump repeated on Tuesday, to Netanyahu’s chagrin. “If I can make a deal with Iran, I’ll be very happy.”
Even in Syria, the Trump and Netanyahu administrations may be at odds. Israel has been bombing military targets in the country even as Damascus struggles to build a viable state after the tyranny of Bashar al-Assad. Trump, however, met Syria’s new and controversial leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, in Saudi Arabia this week, and said he will lift sanctions against the state.
Then there is the agenda for Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He still takes enormous pride in brokering the Abraham Accords, when several Muslim nations including the Emiratis normalized relations with Israel. His successor and predecessor, Joe Biden, then tried but failed to reach a similar agreement with Saudi Arabia, offering Riyadh security guarantees and civilian nuclear technology in return for Saudi recognition of Israel. Such strategic sweep is lacking this time around.
To please Trump, these monarchies are instead building new Trump Towers, bringing golf tournaments to his courses and doing brisk business with his family and crypto ventures. They’ll also announce huge investments in the U.S. The Qatari royals have even offered to donate an unusually luxurious Boeing 747-8 that Trump can turn into Air Force One and later transfer to his presidential library.
They clearly know how to flatter him. In return, Trump may still offer the Saudis that civilian nuclear technology; just without the reciprocal recognition of Israel.
Trump has figured out that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman couldn’t embrace Israel even if he wanted to. After all, Netanyahu’s right-wing government is tormenting the Saudis’ Arab brethren in Palestine, with plans to annex the West Bank and to permanently occupy Gaza, flattening its remaining buildings and relocating its two million residents. The United Nations warns that 1 in 5 Gazans is at risk of starving.
Trump hasn’t said much about this unfolding disaster. He may think he can’t stop Netanyahu anyway and doesn’t want to be associated with the catastrophe. If so, that’s another sign that Trump, unlike Biden, is not a true friend of Israel.
Biden was shaped by his conversations with Israeli leaders since Golda Meir. He had a vision of Israel one day living in peace next to a sovereign Palestine. He understood that Israel under Netanyahu instead risks becoming an international pariah that gradually loses its democratic soul. So he kept prodding Bibi, in vain, to change course. For that effort, the Republicans pounced on Biden for not being sufficiently pro-Israel.
Trump instead pretends to be a Zionist when it suits him and costs nothing, with performative gestures such as moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem in his first term. He’s never disavowed the two-state solution (which has been U.S. policy for decades); nor has he done much to bring it closer. Instead, he recently surprised the visiting Netanyahu, along with everybody else, by announcing that the U.S. would “own” Gaza and turn it into “the Riviera of the Middle East.” Now that Netanyahu plans to occupy the strip, Trump seems to have dropped the idea.
There are two splits in the making here, one personal and the other historic. The personal rift is between two men who are too similar to build a lasting relationship. Trump and Netanyahu are egotistical and solipsistic leaders who callously conflate their own fate (including their prospects of staying out of court) with that of their nations.
The historic rupture consists of the U.S. letting an old and close friend, Israel, become ever more isolated in the world. For decades, Israel’s national interest factored into America’s. Now they are diverging.
Biden should have broken with Bibi to save Zionism, but he didn’t have the courage. Trump is indeed dissing Netanyahu, but not for the sake of Israel. He’s doing it for himself.
Andreas Kluth is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering U.S. diplomacy, national security and geopolitics. Previously, he was editor-in-chief of Handelsblatt Global and a writer for the Economist.
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