Donald Trump has been cracking down on Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu of late, triggering sarcastic jokes in Israel that he is “Bibi-sitting” him.
What this means, in practice, is that the United States, Israel’s chief ally and benefactor, has been exerting pressure on Israel to do its bidding on a wide range of issues ranging from Trump’s 20-point peace plan in the Gaza Strip to the controversy over whether Israel should annex the West Bank.
According to a survey released by Channel 12 on October 31, two-thirds of Israelis think that the United States, not Israel, is the main decision-maker in Gaza today. Only 24 percent thought that Israel is calling the shots there.
Trump, in his second term of office, has been more demanding and critical of Israel than he was the first time around as president, indicating that turbulence may lie ahead in Israel’s strategic relationship with Washington.
During his inaugural presidency, Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and transferred the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He also recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the disputed Golan Heights. And in a reversal of four decades of American policy, his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, stated that the United States no longer considered Israeli settlements in the West Bank as a violation of international law.
Trump’s moves prompted Netanyahu to hail Trump as the most pro-Israel president in U.S. history, a compliment he has continued use.
Although Trump petulantly denounced Netanyahu after he congratulated Joe Biden on his victory in the 2016 presidential election, he subsequently mended his quarrel with Netanyahu.
From that point forward, Netanyahu boasted that they were on the same page on major Middle East issues.
Much to his satisfaction, Netanyahu was the first foreign leader to visit the White House following Trump’s inauguration last January. Trump delighted Netanyahu by calling for Gaza’s depopulation and its development into a Middle Eastern Riviera, a pie-in-the-sky scheme that Trump eventually dropped.
Trump, too, supported Israel’s protracted military campaign in Gaza at a time when most nations were calling for an immediate truce.
This past June, he joined forces with Israel during its 12-day war with Iran, deploying B-2 aircraft to bomb Iran’s heavily-fortified Fordow nuclear site. It was the first time the United States and Israel had fought on the same side in a war.
This past summer, Trump lambasted the ongoing criminal trial against Netanyahu, deploring it as a “witch hunt” and a “travesty of justice.” More recently, during a brief trip to Israel, he urged Israeli President Isaac Herzog to pardon Netanyahu, who has been accused of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, charges he denies.
In the last few months, Trump — a mercurial, unpredictable and transactional politician prone to fits of volatility — has openly challenged Netanyahu, creating daylight between Israel and the United States.
Despite having sided with Israel in its first war against Iran, Trump attacked Israel on the last day of the conflict. Three hours after he and Qatar brokered a ceasefire agreement, Israel ordered a retaliatory strike in Iran, infuriating Trump and prompting him to demand its cancellation.
On his Truth Social media site, Trump wrote, “Israel. Do not drop those bombs … Bring your pilots home, now.” He then added, “All planes will turn around and head home … the ceasefire is in effect!”
Israel had no alternative but to heed Trump’s warning and scrub the mission.
The Israeli government was also disappointed when Trump brokered a truce with the Houthis in Yemen that allowed them to continue attacking Israel and Israeli ships in the Red Sea.
Israel’s botched air strike in Qatar on September 9, aimed at killing Hamas’ chief hostage negotiators, raised Trump’s ire. He forced Netanyahu to phone Qatar’s prime minister and issue an apology assuring him that Israel would not strike Qatar, a key U.S. ally, ever again.
Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and former advisor, told the 60 Minutes television show that Trump was livid. “I think he felt the Israelis were getting a little bit out of control … and that it was time to be very strong and stop them from doing things that he felt were not in their long-term interests.”
In the wake of that unsettling incident, Trump pressed Netanyahu into accepting his 20-point peace plan, phase one of which called for a ceasefire and the release of all the Israeli hostages, living and deceased, in Hamas’ captivity.
Trump told the Axios news site that Netanyahu had no choice but to endorse his plan. “He’s going to be fine with it,” Trump boasted, exuding boundless confidence. “He has no choice. With me, you’ve got to be fine.”
To ensure that both sides honor the agreement, Trump sent Kushner and Steve Witkoff, his Middle East envoy, to Israel. They were followed by Vice President J.B. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
In addition, he established the Civil-Military Coordination Center in the southern Israeli city of Kiryat Gat and dispatched 200 U.S. troops to run it. Jointly commanded by General Brad Cooper, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, and Steven Fagin, the American ambassador to Yemen, its purpose is to monitor the truce, assure it is implemented, and facilitate the flow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Trump, seeking next year’s Nobel Prize for Peace, is determined to preserve the ceasefire, which already has been breached by Hamas several times. “Nothing is going to jeopardize” the truce, he declared on October 29.
Ten days earlier, after two Israeli soldiers were killed by Hamas gunmen emerging from a tunnel in Rafah, Israel threatened to stop all aid entering Gaza. Within hours, however, Israel reversed course. Israeli newspapers attributed the reversal to U.S. intervention.
Several days ago, Vance confirmed that Trump pressured Netanyahu to end the two-year war in Gaza and embrace the plan. As he put it, “The president of the United States could only get that peace deal done by actually being willing to apply leverage on the State of Israel.”
As well, Trump has categorically rejected the notion that Israel can annex the West Bank or parts of it.
A day after the Knesset passed two non-binding and symbolic measures in favor of annexation, an objective Netanyahu’s government supports, Trump said he would not “allow” it. As he put it, “It will not happen. Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened.”
Vance, who was finishing his two-day trip to Israel when the vote took place, was just as emphatic. “It was a very stupid political stunt, ” he asserted.
Adding that he regarded the parliamentary motions as a personal insult, Vance said, “The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel.”
While Trump does not support a two-state solution at this moment, he has suggested he may change his mind in the future. In an interview with Time magazine, he said, “I will decide what I think is right.”
Trump’s assertiveness is an unmistakable sign that Israel does not have a completely free hand in Gaza and, perhaps, in the rest of the region.
Nonetheless, Netanyahu and Vance have both denied that Israel is a U.S. protectorate or a client state.
“I want to make one thing clear,” Netanyahu said recently. “Our security policy is in our own hands.” Vance noted that Israel is an ally rather than a “vassal state.”
That being said, Israel is far more reliant on the United States than the other way around.
The United States was the first country to recognize Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948. Since then, they have formed a close and mutually beneficial political, military and intelligence partnership.
Yet their bilateral relations have been bumpy at times. Virtually every president in the last seven decades has had a run-in with the Israeli government of the day.
The Eisenhower administration forced Israel to withdraw from the Sinai Peninsula following the 1956 Sinai War. The Nixon administration compelled Israel to accept a ceasefire to end its 1968-1970 war of attrition with Egypt in the wake of the 1967 Six Day War.
The Ford administration, in 1976, threatened to “reassess” relations with Israel if it refused to withdraw from the Sinai. The Reagan administration deplored Israel’s destruction of Iraq’s nuclear reactor in 1981 and pushed Israel into ending its heavy bombardment of Beirut during the war in Lebanon in 1982.
The first Bush administration pressured Israel to hold its fire after Iraq fired missiles at Israeli cities during the 1991 Gulf War. The Clinton administration cut off funding for immigrant absorption after Israel declined to cease settlement expansion in the West Bank. The Obama administration forced Netanyahu to agree to a demilitarized Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.
These episodes in the annals of Israel-U.S. relations prove at least one point. While Israel is the U.S.’ closest ally in the Middle East, disagreements periodically emerge. The latest tensions between Trump and Netanyahu attest to this perennial dynamic.