US President Donald Trump’s tour of the Gulf states this week — to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — was closely followed in Israel.
Trump did not visit Israel — a snub that Israeli officials played down, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already visited the White House twice — and there was a growing sense among Israeli commentators that something wasn’t quite right.
This comes at a time when Israel is facing increasing criticism and isolation from other nations over the war in Gaza.
“If you take the last month and certainly the last week, in a series of moves and a series of statements, Trump not only completely sidelined Netanyahu and kept him out of the loop, but marginalized Israel as if it was not an ally,” former senior Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas, now a columnist for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, told DW.
Meanwhile, Israel has intensified its airstrikes in Gaza, a possible indication that it is expanding its offensive in Gaza.
On Friday, heavy strikes and tank movements were reported in northern Gaza. According to local health authorities, at least 90 people were killed in strikes across Gaza, including many children. The Israeli military has issued more evacuation orders in several areas, forcing many people to flee to areas that are equally unsafe.
The unexpected recent release of the American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander, reportedly a result of direct negotiations between the US and Hamas and mediators, was seen as a sign that Netanyahu seemed to have been sidelined or, at best, was no longer the center of Trump’s attention, according to Israeli analysts. Alexander is a soldier who was taken captive from his military post during the Hamas-led terror attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.
During the October 7 attack, over 200 people were taken as hostages into the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Fifty-eight hostages are still in Gaza. At least 21 of them are believed to be alive.
In January, Hamas and Israel agreed on the first phase of a ceasefire, which saw 33 Israeli hostages released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. However, a second phase was never negotiated and, in March, Israel broke the ceasefire, vowing to eradicate Hamas.
Have Trump and Netanyahu fallen out?
During his Gulf trip this week, Trump concluded a $142 billion (€127 billion) arms deal with Saudi Arabia as well as a $600 billion investment deal that increases the Gulf state’s technological potential, which could be seen as threat to Israel’s own technological and military prowess.
In April, Netanyahu was invited to an urgent meeting in Washington. Netanyahu said he thought he could convince Trump to remove US tariffs on Israeli imports but he wasn’t able to. Instead Trump seemed to take Netanyahu by surprise when he announced direct US-Iran talks regarding Iran’s nuclear program.
This contrasted sharply with two leaders’ first meeting in February in the US, when Trump spoke to Netanyahu about his vision of a “Gaza Riviera” and the forced displacement of its population.
Another decision that caused a stir in Israel was Trump’s announcement on May 6 that the US had reached a truce with the Houthi group in Yemen, just two days after the rebels launched a missile at Israel’s main international airport, Ben Gurion. The Houthis vowed to continue launching missiles at Israel as long as the Gaza war continues.
Israeli commentator Pinkas suggested that Trump doesn’t like Netanyahu’s “manipulations and constant deception on both Iran and Gaza.”
Trump practices a very transactional foreign policy, Pinkas explained. “Netanyahu can only give him two things that he’s refused to give until now: A ceasefire in Gaza, which Netanyahu violated himself in March — [perhaps] he misinterpreted Trump’s laziness or disinterest as some kind of green light to attack again.
And the second is Iran,” Pinkas continued. “While Trump keeps on saying he wants an agreement with Iran and that he will pursue an agreement, Netanyahu keeps on with his belligerent rhetoric.”
Others are more cautious and say that Trump appears to be laying the groundwork for regional changes.
“I hear voices in Israel saying that he completely sidelined Netanyahu, but I think it more complicated than that,” Yaki Dayan, a former Israeli consul general in the US, and now a frequent commentator on Israeli-American relations in local media, told DW. “I think he [Trump] is taking into account all these issues that are extremely important for Israel in terms of normalization, with the Syrians and with the Saudis.”
But Israel should have been more involved, Yaki said. “We could have been in the central position, in shaping the new Middle East, as Trump is doing now,” Dayan said. But, he adds, “I think that one of the things that Trump wanted from Israel is to finish the war in Gaza, which Netanyahu is not giving him.”
Netanyahu is unlikely to do either of those things though, Pinkas argued. “If he doesn’t have those two issues, then A, he doesn’t have a [governing] coalition, and B, he doesn’t have a reason to be prime minister.”
What does it mean for the region?
Much will now depend on the next developments in Gaza. A new round of negotiations in Qatar to finalize a new deal between Israel and Hamas appear to be faltering.
Meanwhile, Israel has escalated its military offensive and Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed not to end the war, which is a key Hamas demand. The Israeli cabinet recently approved a plan to occupy large swathes of Gaza and force the already-displaced Palestinian population to relocate south, something that could be considered a war crime under international law.
And while Israel has endorsed a new humanitarian, albeit controversial aid plan proposed by the US, it has not lifted the devastating blockade on Gaza. Since March, people in the small territory have been denied food, medicine, shelter and fuel, with devastating consequences. Earlier this week, international food security experts warned that Gaza was at high risk of famine in the coming weeks.
During his visit in Qatar, Trump said, “I have concepts for Gaza that I think are very good. Make it a freedom zone, let the United States get involved and make it just a freedom zone.”
The conflict in Gaza prevents Trump from his long-held ambition, a grand plan to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia and to expand the Abraham Accords, a series of bilateral agreements between the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Israel mediated by the first Trump administration.
Yet, despite the concerns over the Trump-Netanyahu relationship, there is currently no indication the US will pressure Israel to stop the military offensive there if these latest talks fail.
Source : https://www.dw.com/en/donald-trump-benjamin-netanyahu-israel-hamas-war-gaza-saudi-arabia/a-72561885
