Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long sold himself as the leader who will ensure ties with the United States, the country’s most important ally, remain strong. The endorsement he received from US President Donald Trump in the run-up to Israel’s parliamentary elections last month added to that perception, in the same year that Washington and Israel jointly launched war against Iran. Then came the US midterm elections and the disastrous performance of Trump’s Republican Party. Early analyzes of why the Republicans lost so badly have focused in part on that war with Iran and the United States’ relationship with Israel. Both were highlighted by US Vice President JD Vance. 4 Item Recommended Stories Listend list Suddenly, Netanyahu’s argument that he is the secret sauce in the US-Israel relationship seems much weaker. If anything, it can be argued that Netanyahu and his policies – which resulted in a genocidal war in Gaza, the Iran war, and numerous attacks in the broader region – have made Israel politically toxic in the United States. Many Israelis are now worried that the country can no longer depend on the unquestioning support of the United States. And as Israel’s political leaders race to try to form a government after parliamentary elections, the opposition has placed the blame squarely on Netanyahu, arguing that it is another reason why he should not be allowed to form the next government. Yair Lapid, a former Israeli prime minister whose party is a member of the bloc seeking to overthrow Netanyahu, highlighted his own ties to members of the U.S. Congress in a social media post. He added that he believed American voters were not so much against Israel as “against extremist ministers who say crazy things. They are against settler violence; they are against a government they don’t understand; they are primarily against Netanyahu; for them, everything about him is toxic.” Prime Minister’s support. “The price of Trump’s support for Netanyahu is $3.8 billion a year,” Lieberman wrote on social media. “If the United States stops the money it has funneled to Israel for so many years, the defense budget, which already represents 7 percent of GDP, will have to increase. Israelis will feel it in their pocket. But then, you can’t be a rogue state and expect things to continue as before,” said Ahron Bregman, an Israeli security analyst and professor at King’s College London. said. “In Israel, Netanyahu continues to do what he has always done so well: turn one segment of the population against another. Now he is trying to delegitimize the Arabs by saying they stole the election, to prevent the opposition from having the Arabs as partners.” Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot won 48 seats, while the Arab-led parties – the United Arab List (Ra’am) and the Joint List – have 19 seats. Both Arab-led parties have said they will support Eisenkot as prime minister. Eisenkot and other opposition leaders have rejected suggestions of a unity government with Netanyahu, leaving him without a clear path to a majority. It is now up to Israeli President Isaac Herzog to nominate a politician to form a government, but he has not yet done so. his support from outside the government, despite Netanyahu’s attacks. Eisenkot’s prospects were further boosted on Thursday when United Torah Judaism (UTJ), Netanyahu’s former ultra-Orthodox ally, declined for the first time since 2009 to recommend him or anyone else to form a government, an apparent defection that weakens the prime minister’s position while giving a boost to his opponents. minister does not necessarily mean that he will be able to reverse Israel’s decline in popularity in the United States. A Pew Research Center poll in April suggested that public attitudes in the United States are as negative toward Israel as they are toward Netanyahu, said pollster Shibley Telhami, director of the University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll. “Our own poll found that most Americans would not change their view of Israel, even if there were a new government without Netanyahu,” Telhami said. “Any government in Israel would be swimming against the rising public tide… I don’t think any government in Israel can return relations to where they were five years ago.” Israel’s war on Iran, along with near-constant coverage of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, had further undermined support for Israel, and younger Americans, in particular, turned their backs on one of the United States’ closest international partners. “This does not mean that the alliance itself will end any time soon,” he said, “but it does mean that the era of bipartisan support for Israel is over and, going forward, US policy toward Israel will be much more contentious domestically.” Gadi Eisenkot as prime minister may temporarily improve US-Israeli relations, but for Israel to repair its relations with the Democratic Party – which were severely damaged by Netanyahu – Israel will have to significantly change its policies, particularly with respect to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, not simply change its leader.”
