The assurance that Trump will always have Israel’s back is one upon which Israel cannot afford to rely
PHOTO: AP PHOTO/ALEX BRANDON
INhis major speech in Riyadh on May 13, President Trump emphasized that he does not believe in permanent enemies. But the flip side of that statement, as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has surely deduced, is that he also does not believe in permanent friends. Thus, the assurance that Trump will always have Israel’s back is one upon which Israel cannot afford to rely.
Indeed, the press in both Israel and the US have been filled the past two weeks with stories of a growing distance between the two countries with respect to Israel’s renewed campaign in Gaza and the ongoing nuclear negotiations between the US and Iran. The Washington Post, a consistent, harping critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza, reported May 19, “Trump’s people are letting Israel know, ‘We will abandon you if you do not end this war,’ said a person familiar with the discussions.”
There are good reasons to be skeptical of some of these reports. The Israeli press reports in particular are part of the nonstop media campaign to undermine Netanyahu, who survived the hostile Biden “politburo” and has placed great hopes in Trump’s support.
Many of those leaks likely come from the so-called “restrainer” faction in MAGA world, which includes the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., the noxious Tucker Carlson, and apparently Vice President J.D. Vance. That faction believes that the United States can live with a nuclear Iran, and doing so is preferable to war with Iran. And the “restrainers” appear to be gaining power (as will be discussed).
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