news analysis
Trump
Shrugs Off Netanyahu on Gulf Tour
On Iran,
Gaza, Syria and Yemen, President Trump is moving ahead without Israel,
reshaping decades of foreign policy.
Michael D.
Shear
By Michael
D. Shear
Reporting
from Jerusalem
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/18/world/middleeast/trump-israel-netanyahu-gulf.html
May 18,
2025, 12:01 a.m. ET
When
President Trump shook hands with Syria’s new leader and promised to lift
sanctions on his country at the Saudi royal palace this week, it was a vivid
demonstration of how the president’s Middle East diplomacy has all but
sidelined Israel.
“Tough guy,
very strong past,” Mr. Trump said about President Ahmed al-Shara, who once had
ties with Al Qaeda. Mr. Trump said he was ending the sanctions, many of which
had been imposed on Syria’s previous government, “to give them a chance at
greatness.”
In doing so,
Mr. Trump was effectively shrugging off the views of Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government calls Mr. al-Shara a “jihadist.” Israel’s
military has bombed Syria hundreds of times since December, when rebels led by
Mr. al-Shara ousted President Bashar al-Assad from power.
In recent
decades, under U.S. presidents from both parties, Israel has largely enjoyed a
special place at the center of American foreign policy in the region. Mr.
Netanyahu, who has been in power for much of the past two decades, was always
an essential player in the Middle East debate, even as he sometimes infuriated
his American counterparts.
There is no
indication that the United States is abandoning its historic ties with Israel,
or will stop its military and economic support for the country. During his
flight on Air Force One from Riyadh to Doha, Mr. Trump dismissed concerns about
sidelining Israel.
“No not at
all,” he told reporters. “This is good for Israel, having a relationship like I
have with these countries, Middle Eastern countries, essentially all of them.”
But Mr.
Trump’s five-day tour through the Middle East this week underscored a new
dynamic, one in which Israel — and Mr. Netanyahu, in particular — is something
of an afterthought. In Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, Mr.
Trump has sought to negotiate peace deals in Iran and Yemen and cut
trillion-dollar business deals with the wealthy nations of the Persian Gulf.
He did not
make a stop in Israel.
“The overall
sense is of shifting attention and perception of interest, mainly to the Gulf
States, where the money is,” said Itamar Rabinovich, a former Israeli
ambassador to the United States.
Mr.
Rabinovich said that Mr. Trump appears to have lost much of his interest in
working with Mr. Netanyahu to resolve the war in Gaza, because of “a sense that
there’s no point. Netanyahu has his position, he doesn’t move from it. Hamas
doesn’t move from its position. It seems like a hopeless stalemate.”
Omer Dostri,
Mr. Netanyahu’s spokesman, denied any serious rift in relations between the two
countries, citing Mr. Netanyahu’s two visits to the White House in the last
several months and Mr. Trump’s recent comment that “we are on the same side on
every issue,” referring to the Israeli prime minister.
But the
change in diplomatic fortunes has been hard to miss during the last few weeks,
as Mr. Trump took action on one issue after another — without involving Mr.
Netanyahu.
Earlier this
month, Mr. Trump surprised many in Israel by abruptly announcing a cease-fire
with the Houthi militants in Yemen, even as the group continued to fire
missiles into Israel. When Israel failed to intercept one missile, it struck
the Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, disrupting flights for weeks.
Days later,
the Trump administration secured the release of Edan Alexander, the last living
American hostage in Gaza, without Israel’s involvement.
Nadav
Shtrauchler, a former adviser to Mr. Netanyahu, said that the prime minister
still has a relationship with Mr. Trump, but it is different from the one he
has had with previous American presidents.
“With Biden,
Netanyahu could postpone decisions,” he said. “In Trump’s case, as soon as that
happens, the decisions are made over Netanyahu’s head. This is a change that
worries many people in Israel.”
Throughout
his Middle East visit, Mr. Trump has repeated his desire for a deal with Iran
that would avoid the need to use military force against its nuclear facilities.
In Qatar on Thursday, he said the United States was in “very serious
negotiations with Iran for long-term peace,” adding that it would be
“fantastic” if they reached a deal.
That is also
the opposite of what Mr. Netanyahu has said he wanted. The Israeli prime
minister has urged the Trump administration to support, or even participate in,
military strikes against Iran. So far, Mr. Trump has gone the other way, though
he has repeatedly held open the possibility of large-scale strikes if
negotiations fail.
“More than
anything else, the heart of the story is Iran,” Mr. Shtrauchler said.
“Netanyahu’s legacy is at stake.”
The decision
on how to deal with Iran is not unlike the president’s decision to lift
sanctions on Syria. There is deep suspicion in Israel that Mr. al-Shara’s new
government will turn out to be another anti-Israel, extremist force. Israeli
officials say the strikes are meant to destroy the weapons from the regime of
President Bashar al-Assad, which Mr. al-Shara overthrew, and limit its presence
near Israel’s northern border.
By contrast,
Mr. Trump’s announcement about sanctions is an endorsement of Mr. al-Shara’s
promises to be different, and will throw him a desperately needed economic
lifeline.
Taken
together, the president’s actions are a stunning turnaround, even from Mr.
Trump’s own first term, when he visited Israel during his first foreign trip
abroad. One of his first official acts on that trip was to announce that the
United States would move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a symbolic
show of solidarity with Mr. Netanyahu by his side.
The shift
has shaken Israelis.
Reports in
Israeli newspapers and international headlines blared the hand wringing:
“Bypassed by Trump, Israel dismayed but silent”; “Trump’s Snubs: What
Netanyahu’s Declining Global Prowess Means for His Fortunes at Home”; “White
House signals fatigue with Netanyahu”; “Trump’s Middle East trip leaves
Netanyahu watching from the sidelines again.”
For now, Mr.
Trump appears unlikely to reverse course, even as his aides insist that his
relationship with Mr. Netanyahu remains strong. The president is no longer
treating Israel like the indispensable nation in the Middle East or the lone
democracy in a sea of autocracy.
Militarily,
the United States relies on vast bases in Saudi Arabia and Qatar to project
force in the region, including the sprawling Al Udeid Air Base just outside of
Doha. Mr. Trump has sought to deepen relations with Turkey, a NATO member that
has harshly criticized Israel’s war in Gaza, which have escalated to personal
insults between Mr. Netanyahu and the Turkish president.
Economically,
Mr. Trump views the Gulf nations as reliable — and reliably wealthy — places to
do business. Mr. Trump wants Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords in a
normalization deal with Israel but appears to have recognized it will not
happen while the war in Gaza is still raging. Instead, he has focused on
business deals with the crown prince.
In a speech
in Riyadh on Tuesday, Mr. Trump heralded the “bright future of the Middle East”
and praised the leaders of “a modern and rising” region.
“A new
generation of leaders is transcending the ancient conflicts of tired divisions
of the past and forging a future,” he said, “where people of different nations,
religions, and creeds are building cities together, not bombing each other out
of existence.”
He mentioned
Israel only in passing. Instead, he focused on the Gulf leaders who vastly
expanded what he called the “gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi” over the
past decade. The focus of the speech, and its tone, was a dramatic shift from
those delivered by his predecessors.
For Israel,
and for Mr. Netanyahu, that shift carries long-term implications. But so far,
the prime minister has shown little interest in shifting his approach to
governing or his conduct of his country’s conflicts with Hamas, Iran, Syria or
Yemen.
Even as Mr.
Trump traveled through the Gulf, promising a new future in the region, Israeli
forces intensified their attacks in Gaza with a fierce strike aimed at a senior
Hamas leader and a response to missile attacks that killed dozens of
Palestinians near the northern Gaza city of Jabaliya.
In comments
during the trip, Mr. Trump acknowledged the threat of starvation in Gaza, even
as the Israeli political leadership, including Mr. Netanyahu, have downplayed
that concern. But for the most part, the
president’s main focus throughout the trip was elsewhere.
Jonathan
Swan contributed reporting.
Michael D.
Shear is a White House correspondent for The Times. He has reported on politics
for more than 30 years.
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