By Chris Menahan – Information Liberation
Israel is in “total panic” that they’re going to be the next US “ally” dropped by the Trump administration, according to the Washington Post.
From The Washington Post, “Trump repeatedly bypasses Netanyahu, stoking dismay among Israelis”:
JERUSALEM — During his first major overseas trip this week, President Donald Trump is set to visit three countries in the Middle East — Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — without stopping in Jerusalem.
It’s not the first time he has bypassed Israel — or Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
From embarking on nuclear talks with Iran to attempting hostage talks with Hamas without Israel’s knowledge, Trump has increasingly sidelined Netanyahu, stoking anxieties in a country long accustomed to being consulted by successive U.S. administrations.
Last week, Israelis believed they saw more cracks emerge between the “America First” president and Israel, after Trump said he had struck a truce with Yemen’s Houthi rebels that curbed the group’s attacks on U.S. ships — but did not cover Israel. Days later, reports emerged that Trump was considering offering Saudi Arabia access to civil nuclear technology without demanding that the kingdom normalize relations with Israel, a precondition that had been set by former president Joe Biden.
On Sunday, senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya said the group would release Israeli American hostage Edan Alexander following direct talks with U.S. officials.
Now, many Israelis are wondering whether Israel is the next U.S. ally to be left behind by a president they considered, just months ago, to be the most pro-Israel in history.
“It’s disconcerting,” said Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to Washington.
“It’s total panic,” said Shalom Lipner, a former Netanyahu aide and a fellow at the Atlantic Council, describing the mood in Jerusalem.
Israeli concerns about Trump’s negotiations with Iran and other threats to Israel “are not being taken into account, or if they are, they’re dismissed,” said Dennis Ross, a former senior State Department official who served as a Middle East envoy under both Democratic and Republican presidents.
Voices in the Trump administration who advocate fewer U.S. military entanglements in the Middle East are in the ascendancy, Ross noted, while Trump is likely to put top priority on bringing billions of dollars’ of investments from wealthy Persian Gulf monarchies to the United States during his trip.
“What you’re seeing is that President Trump has an idea of what is in our interest, and that comes first,” Ross said. “He defines the nature of our interests abroad not through a geopolitical or security context, but an economic, financial and trade frame. I think President Trump might have the view that ‘We give them $4 billion a year in military assistance. I do plenty to support the Israelis.'”
[…] One Trump adviser, who described Trump’s treatment of Netanyahu as “one notch above” his fractious White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky three months ago, said influential MAGA voices have worked throughout the spring to resist efforts by pro-Israel lobbying groups and neoconservative Republicans to install Iran hawks and others seen as overly sympathetic to Netanyahu in key national security posts.Former national security adviser Michael Waltz was removed from his position after he appeared to have engaged in intense coordination with Netanyahu about military options against Iran, which angered Trump, The Washington Post reported this month.
“In MAGA, we are not Bibi fans,” said the Trump adviser, using Netanyahu’s nickname. “Trump is adamant: He wants people to put the guns down.” The adviser, like several others cited in this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk frankly about relations between the two leaders.
The rise of an Israel-skeptic wing in Washington, particularly within a Republican Party that is traditionally seen as close to Israel, poses a new challenge, Israeli officials and analysts say.
For decades, when American presidents, from Republican George H.W. Bush to Democrat Barack Obama, have clashed with Israel on matters ranging from West Bank settlement policy to strategy toward Iran, Israel has depended on its supporters in Congress to push back. And yet even after Netanyahu and some of Israel’s supporters threw their weight behind Trump, a number of Republican lawmakers allied with Trump, such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia), are increasingly turning away from Israel, leaving it without recourse in Congress.
“There is more and more criticism, with people saying: We put all our eggs in one basket and now we are empty-handed,” said Amit Segal, a prominent Israeli political analyst. “What will Israel do now? Call [Rep.] Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? It’s a problem.”
Is the long-awaited decoupling finally happening?
It’s appearing more likely by the day that this rift is genuine and not just a sham to get Iran to take its guard down.
I noted in my last article how Israelis were saying two months ago they were afraid they could get the Zelensky treatment at any moment and now we have a Trump advisor telling the Post that Netanyahu is just “one notch above” the Ukrainian leader.
(It is worth noting the Trump administration hasn’t dropped Zelensky and just signed a minerals deal to further entrench America into the region.)
As I commented on Saturday, one reason to believe Trump could actually be distancing the US from Israel is he just suffered a humiliating defeat to the Houthis in a war that was exclusively for Israel and he could be making brash decisions as a result.
If Trump’s pivot is actually legit, he’s going to face tremendous opposition from the Israel Lobby’s puppets in the GOP.
For example, Lindsey Graham and Tom Cotton on Thursday threatened Trump that they would not approve a new Iranian nuclear deal if it doesn’t require the “complete dismantlement” of their current program.
Trump’s going to have to go to war with these traitors and not cave to their pressure as he’s done in the past. I have no doubt it’s a war he could win — he would have the full backing of the majority of Americans — but the will needs to be there.
We shouldn’t get too excited until we actually see these prospective policy changes actually put in place. That said, we should all let it be known we will put Trump down as one of the greatest leaders in American history if brings our parasitic “special relationship” with Israel to an end.