Bypassed by Trump, Israel dismayed but silent

15/5/2025 6:16

Israel's right-wing

government has maintained a diplomatic silence this week as U.S.

President Donald Trump fired off a blizzard of announcements

that have shaken Israeli assumptions about their country's

standing with its most important ally.

Trump's decision to bypass Israel during his current visit to

the Middle East had already been seen as a marker of the his

administration's increased focus on lucrative business deals

with wealthy Gulf countries, including Qatar, which Israeli

officials have long accused of helping Hamas.

Even before the trip began, Israel was on edge over U.S. talks

with its arch-enemy Iran and over Trump's decision to stop

bombing the Houthis in Yemen, regardless of the Iranian-backed

group's determination to keep up its own missile strikes against

Israel.

Israeli officials were then forced to stand by and watch as the

United States negotiated to reach a deal with the Palestinian

militant group Hamas to bring home Edan Alexander, the last

surviving American hostage in Gaza.

Since then, they have had to listen as Trump declared an end to

sanctions on Syria and called for a normalization of relations

with the new government in Damascus, which Israel regards as a

barely disguised jihadist regime.

Even as Trump spoke in Riyadh on Tuesday, claiming credit for

the ceasefire agreement with the Houthis, Israeli media noted

that warning sirens were sounding in areas across Israel

including Jerusalem and Tel Aviv as a missile from Yemen headed

towards them.



Trump himself has brushed off any suggestion of a break with

Israel, telling reporters accompanying him in the Gulf that his

visit would ultimately benefit a country that has so far viewed

him as one of its staunchest supporters.



"This is good for Israel, having a relationship like I have

with these countries; Middle Eastern countries, essentially all

of them," he said.



Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far made no

comment, beyond thanking Trump for helping with the release of

Alexander.



But he has faced widespread public perception that Israel,

already under international pressure over the Gaza war, which

has stymied its own hopes of normalizing relations with Saudi

Arabia, has been left behind.



"The Middle East is in the process of being reshaped in

front of our very eyes through a series of agreements and

meetings, while Israel has remained (in the best-case scenario)

an observer on the sidelines," wrote Yoav Limor, a commentator

in the right-leaning Israel Hayom newspaper.







DIVERGING PRIORITIES



Netanyahu, currently on trial on corruption charges which he

denies, made no secret of his preference for Trump over the

previous White House incumbent Joe Biden, who held back some

heavy munitions deliveries and imposed sanctions on a number of

violent Israeli settlers.



He faces pressure both from religious-nationalist hardliners

in his government, who have insisted on continuing the war in

Gaza until the final defeat of Hamas, and an Israeli public

increasingly tired of a conflict that has lasted for more than

18 months. So far, he has sided with the hardliners.

But the events of the past two weeks suggest there was a "clear

divergence of priorities" and the special treatment from U.S.

administrations that has normally been enjoyed by Israel may not

apply, said Jonathan Panikoff, former deputy U.S. national

intelligence officer for the Middle East.



"Trump is clearly determined to move ahead with a

transactional, trade and investment focused agenda," said

Panikoff, now at the Atlantic Council think-tank in Washington.



"If the traditional political or security matters that the

U.S. and Israel have always historically coordinated on closely

don't align well with Trump's priorities, he's going to go

forward with them anyways."



While insisting that U.S.-Israeli relations remain strong,

Trump administration officials at times have privately expressed

frustration with Netanyahu as the president seeks to fulfil his

campaign promise to quickly end the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.



They want Netanyahu to work harder to reach a ceasefire and

hostages deal with Hamas and have also shown little appetite for

backing any Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities while

the U.S. pursues a diplomatic solution.



White House National Security Council spokesman James Hewitt

said the administration was continuing to work with Israel to

free the remaining 58 hostages held in Gaza and to strengthen

regional security in the Middle East.



"Israel has had no better friend in its history than

President Trump," he said.



The hardliners in the Israeli government, who once rejoiced

at Trump's announcement of a plan to clear Gaza of its

Palestinian population and develop the coastal enclave into a

beachside resort, have been largely silent and Israeli officials

have been careful to avoid any criticism of the U.S.

administration.



"The United States is a sovereign country," a foreign

ministry spokesperson said this week, when asked if there was

concern that Israel had been sidelined over the release of

Alexander. Israel's "intimate dialogue" with the United States

would be conducted "directly and not through the media."

An Israeli team has been dispatched to Doha to join ceasefire

talks coordinated by Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff, but

Israeli forces have stepped up strikes in Gaza, killing dozens

of Palestinians on Wednesday.



Netanyahu himself signalled Israel, which earlier this month

announced plans for an intensified campaign in Gaza, was

sticking to its war aims, including dismantling Hamas as a

military and governing power.



"Israel will not stop and will not surrender," he said on

Wednesday.