Over objections from Jerusalem, he’s lifted all sanctions on a Syrian leadership that Israel understandably regards as a terrorist regime unless or until proven otherwise, and asked President Ahmed al-Sharaa to normalize relations with Israel and join the Abraham Accords.
As I write, he’s just arrived in Qatar, the Hamas-funding, Hamas-hosting mediator that’s allegedly been paying some of Netanyahu’s aides to lobby on its behalf, and that Trump has insisted is “absolutely trying to help” resolve the hostage-war crisis.
Every one of these moves has vast implications for Israeli security, economy and the daily well-being of its people. Any Israeli government would have tried to influence and amend Trump’s rapid deal-making steps toward the Houthis, the Syrians, the Saudis and the Iranians. But Israel has been largely marginalized as Trump has advanced them.
It was being speculated in Jerusalem on Tuesday evening that Trump is angry with Netanyahu for having sought to push him toward a military strike on Iran, when he has been advocating diplomacy. It was also being suggested that Trump has concluded that Israel is simply no longer as central to American interests in the region.
Implicit in Trump’s admiration for progress in the Gulf is a demotion of Israel as the go-to regional cutting-edge powerhouse, the prime innovator, the tech pioneer, the smart destination for investment. Right now, you can barely even fly here.
He said on the plane to Qatar that the US having good ties with the Gulf states “is very good for Israel.” Potentially, that is true, but only if the Israeli leadership proves capable of utilizing those ties. The longer Israel is not seated at the main table alongside the US president, metaphorically and literally, the narrower Israel’s room for maneuver
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