The Israeli right thought they had an ally in US president Trump
They may have to think again
It’s not just that Trump is avoiding visiting Israel: In another stunning shift, Trump appears ready to proceed with a strategic defense pact with Saudi Arabia even without conditioning it on normalization with Israel
Biden had made normalization a key prerequisite; Trump seems to have dropped it
That is certainly not what anyone in Israel hoped for: Normalization with Saudi Arabia is a holy grail of Israeli diplomacy and would be a boost for its economy, a chance to break the last major Arab resistance to acceptance of the Jewish state
Trump’s next moves are impossible to predict and he could always, once again, turn on a dime
But the signs are there that he has observed that Netanyahu — who is beholden to far-right coalition partners demanding maximalist war aims — cannot or will not deliver what Saudi Arabia needs to ensure a diplomatic leap
If normalization is off the table because of Netanyahu, Trump sees little value in delaying an agreement with Riyadh that is, for him, a much-needed foreign policy win This would be a catastrophic loss for Israel
Instead of seizing the long-yearned-for opportunity to establish ties with their powerful neighbor, Israel appears to be squandering it in service of keeping Netanyahu’s coalition intact
The Israeli public can only watch as the price of that goal — paid for by the blood of hostages and soldiers, a struggling economy and missed diplomatic breakthroughs — mounts
What Trump seems to have realized — perhaps more clearly than many Israelis themselves — is that the current Israeli government in Jerusalem is not a true ally of the US
The Israeli people are overwhelmingly so But Netanyahu’s government, driven by internal survival and beholden to extremists, is out of step not just with American interests but with Israeli ones as well
Dan Perry is the former chief editor of The Associated Press in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, the former chairman of the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem and the author of two books about Israel
