Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has usually tried to color himself as an in depth good friend of United States President Donald Trump, however the relationship has not often been as easy because the Israeli premier has portrayed it.
And lately, hypothesis throughout the Israeli media that the connection between the 2 leaders, and by extension, their nations, has begun to unravel is turning into unavoidable.
Some thought of the hole was obvious in Trump’s latest Center East journey, which noticed him go to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates however not Israel, the state that has usually been the US’s closest ally inside the area.
Likewise, US negotiations with two of Israel’s fiercest regional opponents, Iran and the Houthi rebels in Yemen, have been happening with none obvious enter from Israel, a rustic that has at all times regarded itself as central to such issues. Lastly, towards a rising refrain of worldwide condemnation over Israel’s actions in Gaza, there was the choice of US Vice President JD Vance to cancel a deliberate go to to Israel for apparently “logistical” causes.
Showing on nationwide tv earlier this month, Israeli commentator Dana Fahn Luzon put it succinctly: “Trump is signalling to Netanyahu, ‘Honey, I’ve had sufficient of you.’”
United States President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu maintain a joint press convention in Washington, DC, the US on February 4, 2025 (Celal Gunes/Anadolu Company)
“We’re seeing a complete breakdown of all the pieces that is likely to be of profit to Israel,” Mitchell Barak, an Israeli pollster and former political aide to a number of senior Israeli political figures, together with Netanyahu, informed Al Jazeera. “America was as soon as our closest ally; now we don’t appear to have a seat on the desk. This must be of concern to each single Israeli.”
‘Many Israelis blame Netanyahu for this,” Barak continued. “He at all times introduced Trump as in some way being in his pocket, and it’s fairly clear Trump didn’t like that. Netanyahu crossed a line.”
‘No higher good friend’
Whereas concern over a possible rift could also be rising inside Israel, distinguished voices within the US administration are stressing the power of their alliance.
Final Sunday, President Trump’s particular envoy, Steve Witkoff, stated that, whereas the US was eager to avert what he known as a “humanitarian disaster” in Gaza, he didn’t suppose there was “any daylight between President Trump’s place and Prime Minister Netanyahu’s place”.
Police guard the doorway to Columbia College as protesters rally in assist of detained Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, March 14, 2025, in New York Metropolis, the US (File: Jason DeCrow/AP)
Additionally doubling down on the US’s dedication to Israel was White Home Nationwide Safety Council spokesperson James Hewitt, who dismissed experiences that the Trump administration was getting ready to “abandon” Israel if it continues with its conflict on Gaza, telling Israeli media that “Israel has had no higher good friend in its historical past than President Trump”.
The Trump administration has additionally been energetic in shutting down criticism of Israel’s conflict on Gaza in public spheres and particularly on US school campuses.
A number of worldwide college students have additionally been arrested and deported for his or her assist of Palestine, together with Rumeysa Ozturk, whose arrest as she was strolling on a road in a Boston suburb for an opinion piece co-authored in a scholar newspaper was described by Human Rights Watch as “chilling”.
Protesters collect exterior a federal courtroom throughout a listening to with legal professionals for Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts College scholar from Turkiye who was detained by US immigration authorities, April 3, 2025 in Boston, Massachusetts, the US (File: Rodrique Ngowi/AP)
Spatting
These insurance policies have made it clear that the Trump administration sits firmly in Israel’s nook. And searching again at Trump’s insurance policies in his first presidential time period, that’s not stunning.
Trump fulfilled most of the Israeli proper’s desires in that time period, between 2017 and 2021, together with recognition of Jerusalem because the capital of Israel, regardless of its japanese half being occupied Palestinian territory, recognising the annexation of the Golan Heights, regardless of it being occupied Syrian territory, and pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal.
However these actions are partly accountable for the bumpy relationship between Trump and Netanyahu, with the US president reportedly resentful of what he noticed as an absence of gratitude for these pro-Israel insurance policies.
Trump was additionally livid after Netanyahu congratulated former US President Joe Biden following his 2020 election victory over Trump, which the present president nonetheless disputes.
“The primary individual that congratulated (Biden) was Bibi (Benjamin) Netanyahu, the person that I did extra for than some other particular person I handled. … Bibi may have stayed quiet. He has made a horrible mistake,” Trump stated in an interview in 2021.
However, within the build-up to the 2024 US election, Netanyahu and his allies actively courted candidate Trump, believing him to be the very best technique of fulfilling their agenda and persevering with their conflict on Gaza, analysts stated.
“Netanyahu had actually campaigned for Trump earlier than the election, emphasising how unhealthy Biden was,” Yossi Mekelberg, an Affiliate Fellow at Chatham Home, stated.
“Now they don’t know which manner Trump’s going to go as a result of he’s so contractual. He’s all in regards to the win,” Mekelberg added, referring to the sequence of victories the president claimed throughout his latest Gulf tour, including, “however there’s no win in Palestine”.
A protester holds a placard forward of a deliberate assembly between US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, exterior the US Consulate in Tel Aviv, Israel, February 3, 2025 (File: Antonio Denti/Reuters)
Throughout the Israeli press and media, a consensus is taking maintain that Trump has merely bored with attempting to safe a “win” or an finish to the conflict on Gaza that Netanyahu and his allies on the Israeli exhausting proper have no real interest in pursuing.
Israeli Military Radio has even carried experiences that Trump has blocked direct contact from Netanyahu over issues that the Israeli prime minister could also be attempting to govern him.
Quoting an unnamed Israeli official, Yanir Cozin, a reporter with Israeli Military Radio, wrote on X: “There’s nothing Trump hates greater than being portrayed as a sucker and somebody being performed, so he determined to chop off contact.”
“There’s a way in Israel that Trump’s turned on Netanyahu,” political analyst Nimrod Flaschenberg stated from Tel Aviv. “Supporters of Netanyahu are panicking, as all of them beforehand thought that Trump’s backing was limitless.”
What now?
A break in relations between Netanyahu and Trump may not imply an automated break between Israel and the US, Flaschenberg cautioned, with all factions throughout the Israeli political spectrum speculating on what the longer term could maintain beneath a realigned relationship with the US.
US monetary, navy and diplomatic assist for Israel has been a bedrock of each nations’ international coverage for many years, Mekelberg stated. Furthermore, no matter Trump’s present misgivings about his relationship with Netanyahu, assist for Israel, whereas diminishing, stays hardwired into a lot of his Republican base, analysts and polls have famous, and notably amongst Republican – and Democratic – donors.
US President Donald Trump has lengthy been a powerful supporter of Israel (File: Jim Watson/AFP)
“These against Netanyahu and the conflict are hoping that the US could now apply a long-lasting ceasefire,” Flaschenberg stated, just about Israeli reliance upon US patronage. “That’s not due to any nice religion in Trump, however extra the extent of their dismay within the present authorities.”
Nonetheless, equally current are these on the exhausting proper, similar to Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Nationwide Safety Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who Mekelberg speculated may hope to make the most of no matter route US coverage in the direction of Israel heads in.
“Ben-Gvir, Smotrich and their backers may make the most of American disinterest, relying upon what form it takes,” Mekelberg informed Al Jazeera. “If the US continues to supply weapons and diplomatic cowl within the UN whereas letting (Israel) get on with it, then that’s their dream,” he stated of Smotrich, who has reassured his backers that permitting minimal assist into the besieged enclave didn’t imply that Israel would cease “destroying all the pieces that’s left of the Gaza Strip”.
Nonetheless, the place Netanyahu could determine in that is unsure.
Accusations that the Israeli prime minister has develop into reliant upon the conflict to maintain the political coalition he wants to stay in workplace and keep away from each a authorized reckoning in his corruption trial, in addition to a political reckoning over his authorities’s failures forward of the October 7, 2023 assault, are each widespread and longstanding.
“I don’t know if Netanyahu can come again from this,” Barak stated, nonetheless unsure about whether or not the prime minister can display his survival abilities as soon as once more. “There’s a whole lot of speak about Netanyahu being on the finish of his line. I don’t know. They’ve been saying that for years, and he’s nonetheless right here. They have been saying that once I was his aide, however I can’t see any extra magic tips which can be out there to him.”
