A key Netanyahu coalition partner says Trump is best for Israel
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Far-right Cabinet member Itamar Ben Gvir said Donald Trump's return will give Israel backing to act against Iran.
PHOTO: AFP
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JERUSALEM – Israeli far-right Cabinet member Itamar Ben Gvir took the unusual step of endorsing Donald Trump as the next US president, saying a return of the former leader would bolster the chances of victory against Iran’s allied militant groups and the Islamic Republic itself.
“I believe that with Trump, Israel will receive the backing to act against Iran,” the Minister for National Security told Bloomberg in an interview. “With Trump it will be clearer that enemies must be defeated.”
The head of Jewish Power – a nationalist party that is key to the survival of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition – Mr Ben Gvir has been an outspoken critic of ceasefire talks that could stop the fighting in Gaza, at least temporarily, and see some of the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas freed in return for the release of Palestinian prisoners.
His opposition to a truce has the ability to undermine internationally mediated attempts to reach a deal, which the US has pushed for months.
That said, he opposed a ceasefire agreement in late November – the only one to date – but did not go as far as quitting government.
Mr Ben Gvir’s comments underscore how the Israel-Hamas war has strained relations with the US and come ahead of Mr Netanyahu’s address to the US Congress in Washington on July 24.
The Prime Minister, on his first trip abroad since the war against Hamas started in October 2023
Mr Netanyahu himself has remained neutral and said it is essential for Israel to work with whatever government runs its most important ally.
Trump will most likely face off against Ms Harris in November’s presidential election.
The decision by Mr Biden not to run
The US leader has failed to support the country fully in its campaign against Hamas, the minister said, citing delayed supplies of weapons.
“The US has always stood behind Israel in terms of armaments and weapons, yet this time the sense was that we were being reckoned with – that we were trying to be prevented from winning,” Mr Ben Gvir said. “That happened on Biden’s watch and fed Hamas with lots of energy.”
While Mr Biden and his top officials repeatedly urged Israel to do more to protect civilians
His administration has supplied Israel with hundreds of ammunition shipments and a US$14 billion (S$18.8 billion) military aid package.
More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war started, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory, much of which has been reduced to rubble.
Hamas, designated a terrorist organisation by the US and European Union, killed about 1,200 people on Oct 7 and took about 250 hostage.
A spokesman for the Palestinian Authority said on July 24 that the US should use Mr Netanyahu’s visit as an opportunity to urge him to stop the conflict.
Mr Ben Gvir appreciates that endorsing Trump may go down badly with other Israeli officials.
“A Cabinet minister is supposed to maintain neutrality, but that’s impossible to do after Biden,” he said.
Iran fire
Israel’s brief exchange of direct fire with Iran
“Israel should respond to attacks on it in a determined, pain-inflicting manner,” the minister said, bemoaning Mr Netanyahu’s muted response to Iran’s unprecedented attack with missiles and drones, almost all of which were intercepted with the help of the US, Britain, France and Jordan.
At the time, Mr Ben Gvir described Israel’s counter-strike on a military site near the city of Isfahan as “weak”.
Trump maintains a hardline against Iran and has said the Islamic Republic would not have attacked Israel had he been in office.
During his term as president that began in 2017, Trump walked away from a deal between Iran and world powers over its nuclear development programme, which has not been reinstated under Mr Biden.
Yet Trump has said Israel must end the war in Gaza and laid the blame for the Oct 7 attack on Mr Netanyahu.
Mr Ben Gvir did not address Ms Harris’ policies directly but implied they would be a continuation of Mr Biden’s.
The US attitude towards Israel needs to change, Mr Ben Gvir said, suggesting that will happen only with Trump.
The minister warned he would quit Mr Netanyahu’s government – potentially collapsing the whole coalition – if a deal is reached that he cannot support.
That would include one that prevents Israel from resuming fighting against Hamas after a temporary truce and leads to a mass release of Palestinian prisoners involved in lethal attacks on Israelis.
Mr Ben Gvir’s preference would be to escalate pressure against Hamas – both with military force and depriving Gaza of humanitarian aid.
He is also in favour of a full-blown war with Hezbollah, a Lebanese-based militant group supported by Iran.
“The sooner, the better,” he said of war with Hezbollah.
Such talk unnerves many in Israel and the country’s allies. Hezbollah is the most powerful militant group in the Middle East, with far more missiles and fighters than Hamas.
Yet Mr Ben Gvir says Israelis back him. Jewish Power is the only party in Israel’s coalition government that is gaining support in the polls.
“Many Israelis realise that I was right all along,” he said. “Their sympathy doesn’t come from nowhere.” BLOOMBERG
