JERUSALEM – Israelis watched the U.S. presidential election results with almost as much interest as the country for which President Donald Trump is the presumptive next leader. After one of Israel’s worst years ever – which started on Oct. 7, 2023, and has continued at various levels of intensity since, the re-election of America’s 45th president has provided the country with a much needed injection of hope.
Israelis watched the U.S. presidential election results with almost as much interest as the country for which President Donald Trump is the presumptive next leader. After one of Israel’s worst years ever – which started on Oct. 7, 2023, and has continued at various levels of intensity since, the re-election of America’s 45th president has provided the country with a much needed injection of hope.
As ennui set in with regard to Joe Biden’s flailing presidency – both in the United States and Israel – citizens of the Jewish state looked to Nov. 5 as a potential springboard to radically alter the momentum in the Middle East. And the early signs that President Trump’s return to the White House could be a catalyst for change are already promising. So, what can Israel and Israelis expect from a second Trump term?
In general, Trump has stated he would bring an end to each of the main wars, which erupted under the watch of his successor and predecessor Biden, including the current conflict between Israel and Hamas, and Israel and Hezbollah. Some fear in his haste to conclude an agreement he might “sell out the Ukrainians,” in the Ukraine-Russia war, and amid concern he might be susceptible to a Putin charm offensive, enabling Russia to keep all or at least most of its territorial gains. An overlapping group of commentators and analysts think if a deal between Israel and Hamas and/ or Hezbollah is in the offing, the Jewish state might not end up in as advantageous a position as it thought.
Meanwhile, several people have pointed to other potentially interlinked pitfalls on the horizon. Despite the domestic pressure on the outgoing Biden-Harris administration and the at-times slow-walking of munitions to Israel, the United States has kept up a relatively steady supply, enabling Israel to maintain its multi-front war. The security assistance Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which despite his alleged animus toward the Jewish state President Obama signed in the final months of his term in office, and guaranteed Israel $3.8 billion per year in military aid, is up for renewal in 2028. Will a President Trump, entering the final stretch of the end of his second term, potentially improve this MOU when a replacement comes up for renewal? Will his aversion to foreign aid, and foreign wars, as well as a seemingly resurgent isolationist wing of the GOP, embodied by Vice President-elect JD Vance, mean Israel will be left disappointed?
In his address to the RNC in August, Trump made a forceful statement – bolder and more muscular than anything outgoing President Biden has managed in the 10-month-long war to that point. His message to the Hamas terrorist organization, which rules the Gaza strip, was very simple: “:Give back our hostages, or else.” In one sentence, his words carried more threat and menace than anyone in the entire Biden administration has mustered.
Trump at the RNC in a message to Hamxs:
“We want our hostages back, and they better be back before I assume office or you will be paying a very big price.” pic.twitter.com/pF60UGVVc0
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) November 6, 2024
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was one of the first international leaders to welcome Trump’s re-election, and there certainly seems to be a great deal of satisfaction at his victory.
Dear Donald and Melania Trump,
Congratulations on history’s greatest comeback!
Your historic return to the White House offers a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America.
