Trump's Unholy Alliance With Israel's Jewish Supremacists
The next U.S. presidential term could be the most consequential in Israel's history: Israelis and Palestinians can't afford Trump's blank check to Netanyahu once again
Israel's Jewish supremacists are counting hard on Donald Trump. The increasingly unhinged ex-president might not be far off when he boasts, "I have done more for Israel than any president."
But for which Israel?
A self-proclaimed "master" of deals, all Trump did was hand Benjamin Netanyahu's Israel a blank check to intensify its occupation of the West Bank, solidifying the prime minister's legacy of subjugating the Palestinians and leaving them with the grim choice of submission or resistance. We all saw how that ended on October 7.
Trump's "pro-Israel" legacy – which includes recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital, recognizing the Golan Heights as Israeli territory, and pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal – allowed Netanyahu to pull off the political stunts he needed during Israel's years-long electoral crisis.
In a new attack ad aired Monday, Trump blamed Hamas' October 7 massacre on Joe Biden's Middle East policy (someone might want to remind him who he's running against). The ad on X featured an image of Trump with Netanyahu, and wrapped up with Trump threatening, "When I'm back in the White House, our enemies will know: If you spill a drop of American blood, we will spill a gallon of yours."
Gallons of blood in the Middle East? Israel's far right is paying close attention.
To understand the pro-Israel Trumpworld, just look at his former ambassador to Israel and West Bank settlement cheerleader David Friedman. His forthcoming book, "One Jewish State," could probably just as easily be called "Apartheid."
After Kamala Harris delivered a balanced speech at the Democratic National Convention, acknowledging both Israel's right to defend itself and Palestinians' right to freedom, Friedman frantically attacked the latter. He wrote that Palestinian self-determination is a "code word for Jews living in Judea and Samaria, their Biblical homeland, [to be] evicted in favor of Palestinians."
Friedman is pushing for the annexation of the West Bank and led a fundraising group that funneled tens of millions of dollars to the settlement of Beit El. His motives are clear; he doesn't need his head examined to understand why he supports a boss who casually uses antisemitic tropes.
Pro-Israel Trumpists, along with Israel's far-right settlers, are desperate to keep the White House away from a Democratic president who recognizes Palestinians as human beings who deserve rights and citizenship in their own land.
The next presidential term could be the most consequential in Israel's history. Will the United States, with its Western allies, guide Israel and Palestine toward a diplomatic solution, or will it allow Israel to resettle Gaza and fight on multiple fronts, all in the name of a vision of Jewish supremacy that is becoming official Israeli policy?
It was no surprise that settler minister Itamar Ben-Gvir broke protocol – if he ever adhered to it – to enthusiastically endorse Trump in a Bloomberg interview last month. He dismissed Biden's departure as "no big loss," after claiming in May that Hamas loves the Democratic president. When Trump doubted the viability of a two-state solution in a Time magazine interview that month, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich praised his "courage and integrity."
The Netanyahus, too, were all smiles with the former president. At Mar-a-Lago last month, they carefully kept their heads still to avoid nodding in agreement as Trump assailed Harris for challenging the prime minister on the devastation in Gaza. Israelis and Palestinians can't afford Trump's blank check to Netanyahu once again.
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