As Netanyahu heads to Washington, he finds an ally in Trump

WASHINGTON – Before former US president Barack Obama was sworn into office in 2009, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu called Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas out of the blue and asked for a lesson in what was essentially a foreign tongue: the language of Democrats.

“I speak Republican and you speak Democratic, and I need the intermediary,” said Mr Netanyahu, who was about to become prime minister of Israel, according to Mr Pinkas. He added: “Netanyahu always thought of himself as some pedigree neocon that belongs in the right wing of the Republican Party.”

Mr Netanyahu, who will on April 7 meet US President Donald Trump

at the White House, is once again conversing with his preferred party, and the difference has been stark.

Where former president Joe Biden had sought to put some restrictions on Mr Netanyahu’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip, the Trump administration has made no such demand.

Where Mr Biden criticised Mr Netanyahu’s attempted overhaul of Israel’s courts, Mr Trump has made attacks of his own against US judges.

“They are unshackled,” said Dr Natan Sachs, director of the Centre for Middle East Policy and a senior fellow in the foreign policy programme at Brookings Institution.

“A lot of concerns that the previous White House kept making about humanitarian aid, about limiting civilian casualties, these concerns are just not voiced any more.”

Looming over the meeting this week is a point of tension:

Mr Trump’s sweeping tariffs

, which did not spare Israel. Mr Netanyahu’s office said the two men planned to discuss the tariff issue, the war in Gaza, Israel-Turkey relations, Iran and the International Criminal Court.

Mr Netanyahu said of the tariffs: “I can tell you that I am the first international leader, the first foreign leader, who will meet President Trump on the issue, which is so important to the Israeli economy.

“There is a long line of leaders who want this regarding their economies. I think that it reflects the special personal link, as well as the special ties between the US and Israel.”

All recent US administrations have allied themselves, to varying degrees, with Israel, although Mr Biden and Mr Netanyahu had a long, complicated history.

Mr Biden referred to the Israeli leader as a “close, personal friend of over 33 years”, and Mr Netanyahu referred to Mr Biden as an “Irish-American Zionist”.

But Mr Biden also grew frustrated with Mr Netanyahu’s conduct in office, criticising his overhaul of Israel’s judiciary. And as US president, he used profanities over how Israel carried out the war in Gaza in response to the Oct 7, 2023, terrorist attacks by Hamas.

After an air strike in Iran, Mr Biden told Mr Netanyahu: “You know the perception of Israel around the world increasingly is that you’re a rogue state, a rogue actor.”

There was a different reaction when Israel consulted the White House recently about aerial attacks across the Gaza Strip. The response from the Trump administration? Give ’em hell.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Fox News: “The Trump administration and the White House were consulted by the Israelis on their attacks in Gaza. All those who seek to terrorise not just Israel, but also the United States of America, will see a price to pay. All hell will break loose.”

The Israeli air strikes ended a temporary ceasefire with Hamas that began in January and raised the prospect of a return to all-out war.

More than 400 people, including children, were killed in the first hours of the strike

s, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.

Mr Netanyahu and Mr Trump have also found common cause in their criticism of their countries’ judges. Mr Trump has railed against judges who have blocked some of his administration’s actions, including invoking wartime powers to speed up deportations.

He has called for one judge, in particular, to be impeached, as Mr Netanyahu cheered him on.

Mr Netanyahu wrote on social media: “In America and in Israel, when a strong right-wing leader wins an election, the leftist Deep State weaponises the justice system to thwart the people’s will. They won’t win in either place! We stand strong together.”

To be sure, Mr Trump and Mr Netanyahu have had their ups and downs.

In Mr Trump’s first term, Mr Netanyahu angered Mr Trump with the rather innocuous act of congratulating his successor, Mr Biden, after the presidential election in 2020.

But in Mr Netanyahu’s view, the first Trump presidency was a boon for Israel. Mr Trump moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem and paid little attention to the Palestinians while siding with Israel on its claims over Palestinian territory in the West Bank.

Then, soon after retaking office, Mr Trump proposed that the

US should seize control of Gaza and permanently displace the entire Palestinian population

of the devastated seaside enclave – one of the most brazen ideas that any US leader has advanced about the region. He has since made some distance from that proposal.

Many condemned Mr Trump’s suggestion as immoral and illegal. But polls showed right-wing Israelis who make up Mr Netanyahu’s base widely supported the idea, and the US President has been popular in Israel.

The fact that Mr Netanyahu’s base backs Mr Trump gives him unique power in the country as Israel and Hamas negotiate the release of hostages and a ceasefire, Dr Sachs said.

“They fear Trump more, and they do think he’s unpredictable,” Dr Sachs said. “The direct talks with Hamas, this was done without Israeli knowledge. It’s something that a more iconoclastic president like Trump is willing to do, and Israel is loath to cross him. He has a better chance to more forcefully get whatever direction he wants.”

But as the war once again ramps up with Mr Trump’s blessing, the Trump administration will also begin to assume ownership of the war, said associate professor of international affairs Ned Lazarus from George Washington University’s Elliott School.

“Netanyahu has had conflict with every one of the multiple US presidents, but he is obviously on much friendlier terms with Trump. He listens to what Trump says,” Prof Lazarus said. “This is a renewal of the war. This is Trump’s war.” NYTIMES