Bypassed
by Trump, Israel dismayed but silent
By James
Mackenzie
May 14,
20258:01 PM GMT+2Updated 3 days ago
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/bypassed-by-trump-israel-dismayed-silent-2025-05-14/
Summary
Trump's
Middle East focus shifts to Gulf business deals
PM
Netanyahu's right-wing govt at odds with some U.S. policy shifts
U.S.-Israel
relations strong but diverging priorities evident, say observers
JERUSALEM,
May 14 (Reuters) - 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.
'This is the
13th time we have been struck at the Aqsa tented camp,
"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.
Additional
reporting by Matt Spetalnick in washington; Editing by Toby Chopra
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