With Trump, already small US distance with Israel to vanish

 

Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu

For more than a year, the United States has steadfastly backed Israel in its Gaza war while quietly counseling restraint. With Donald Trump's return, the nuance will vanish, although his hunger for deal-making makes him less predictable.

Trump, unlike every other recent president, has never committed to a fully sovereign, independent Palestinian state. He leads a Republican Party so pro-Israel that some local offices handed out Israeli flags alongside Trump yard-signs -- a far cry from President Joe Biden, whose support for Israel faced fierce criticism from the left of his Democratic Party.

And while Biden's two ambassadors to Israel were Jewish Americans who would occasionally nudge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump's pick is evangelical Christian pastor Mike Huckabee, a former governor who sees biblical reason to champion Israel.

Other Trump nominees include Senator Marco Rubio -- a hawk on Iran -- as secretary of state, and Representative Elise Stefanik, who made waves by assailing universities' handling of pro-Palestinian protests, as US ambassador to the United Nations.

"They're, like, more pro-Israel than most Israelis," said Asher Fredman, director of the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy, an Israeli think tank.

He expected Trump to take an "America First" approach aimed at reducing US military resources and refocusing on countering China -- which means both empowering Israel to fight enemies and encouraging its normalization with Arab states, notably Saudi Arabia.

"There is really tremendous paradigm-shifting potential in a number of realms, such as advancing regional cooperation and putting maximum pressure on Iran," Fredman said.