Trump’s win mean for the Israel-Hamas conflict
Source: By Deutsche Welle
It didn’t take long for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to welcome Donald Trump’s reelection, describing it as “the greatest comeback in history.” His far-right coalition ministers, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, tweeted their excitement even before the election was officially called.
Netanyahu was “among the first to call” the president-elect, his office said in a statement. “Their conversation was warm and cordial” and the two “agreed to work together for Israel’s security, and also discussed the Iranian threat.”
Trump’s victory came just hours after Netanyahu fired his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, who was seen as a key point of contact for the Biden administration in the Israeli government. According to a postelection poll published by the commercial TV Channel 12, 67% of Israelis said they were “pleased with Trump’s victory.”
First-term policies in favor of Israel
During his first term, Trump took several controversial policy steps in support of Israel. In 2017, he recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and relocated the US embassy there from Tel Aviv, reversing decades of US policy and international opinion on the matter. He also recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria during the 1967 war and illegally annexed in 1981.
Trump is also considered to be the architect of the Abraham Accords, a series of agreements that normalized relations with some Arab countries but bypassed the Palestinians and any solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Some analysts believe Trump may push for normalizing relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia in his second term.
He may also try to revive the so-called Deal of the Century — a plan that envisioned Israel’s annexation of all its settlements in the occupied West Bank while granting Palestinians some autonomy in the remaining enclaves.
In recent years, however, relations between Netanyahu and Trump have cooled. When Trump lost the 2020 election, he seemed annoyed when Netanyahu congratulated US President Joe Biden on winning the presidency. After the Hamas-led terror attacks on 7 October 2023, Trump criticized Netanyahu for being unprepared, claiming it would not have happened if he was still president. Some analysts have called Netanyahu’s relationship with Trump, who is often described as unpredictable, as complex.
Tense Mideast situation will require US attention
The situation in the Middle East will most certainly require the attention of the next US administration. Trump has not laid out a major policy plan for the region, except to claim that he would end the wars in Gaza and Lebanon, without elaborating on how he would differ from the Biden administration.
“Mr. Trump made it clear to Mr. Netanyahu that he wants this finished by January 20 when he goes into the White House, said Pinkas. In April, Trump said Israel was losing “the PR war in Gaza” and urged the country to “finish it fast.”
Critics have accused Netanyahu of playing for time to wait for a new US president, despite the Biden administration’s full military and political support for the Israeli government throughout the war. Netanyahu is happy with Trump, said Pinkas, because “Trump is not going to press him on the Palestinian issue at all.”
During the first Trump administration, Washington rejected the commonly held international position that Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal under international law.
Though the Trump-era policy had been reversed by the Biden administration, some analysts suggest it laid the foundation for the push for full annexation now gaining support.
‘Euphoric mood’ among Israeli settlers
Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported on the “euphoric mood” in the Israeli settler establishment over Trump’s reelection. Settler leaders have a clear post-inauguration plan of action, the paper noted, and have been working with key Republican players over the past few years to prepare the ground for Trump’s return.
According to the article, their plans include launching “an initiative to apply Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria and ‘seizing territory’ for the establishment of new settlement outposts in the northern Gaza Strip.”
Annexing more territory would effectively end the idea of a two-state solution and the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state. While Netanyahu has denied any plans to reestablish Israeli settlements in Gaza, statements by Israeli officials and ministers have suggested otherwise.
There are also concerns Palestinians won’t be able to return to northern Gaza, where Israel has renewed a ground offensive against what it has said are Hamas militants in the area, and where residents say they are trapped in the fighting amid a dire situation.
An estimated 90% of Gaza’s population has been displaced during the 14-month war. One of them is 22-year-old Shadi Assad from the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. He has little hope that a new US administration will bring anything positive and just wants to go home.
Harris was part of the current US administration, and she supported Israel and the war, Shadi Asaad told DW by phone from southern Gaza. The engineering student has been displaced several times and now lives with his family in a tent in Khan Younis.
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