Netanyahu Is Destroying Trump’s Flimsy Peace Plans

No foreign leader has easier access to President Donald Trump than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose planned meeting at Mar-a-Lago today will be the fifth time he has met the US president in the past 10 months. In February, Netanyahu was the first foreign dignitary to visit the White House during Trump's second term, and now the year ends with another meeting. Few foreign leaders have cajoled Trump with as much aplomb as Netanyahu, who describes Trump as “Israel's greatest friend.”

In Trump's first four years in office, these glowing words were more than deserved. How Al Jazeera marked, “During his first term, Trump further pushed US policy in favor of Israel's right-wing government. Golan Heights and stop funding the United Nations Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA).”

The situation during Trump's second term is more complex. Small but significant differences have arisen between Israel and the United States. Trump's push for a more Western Hemisphere-focused foreign policy, including bombing suspected drug ships and threatening regime change in Venezuela, depends on withdrawing military resources from Europe and the Middle East. In the November release of the National Security Strategy, the Trump administration said the Middle East was “emerging as a place of partnership, friendship and investment.” Ironically, Trump's push for a pivot from the Middle East continues the unsuccessful efforts of his predecessors Barack Obama and Joe Biden to reduce the US presence in the region.

Trump's peace plans in the region seem elusive. They would entail the United States withdrawing its military presence abroad while seeking closer integration of its Arab allies with Israel and a new government in the Gaza Strip. According to Roger Cohen, head of the Paris bureau New York Times, noted dryly“Such optimism, based in large part on the Gaza peace agreement signed in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on October 13, appears exaggerated, much like President Trump’s claim that day that it would take 3,000 years to achieve a breakthrough of this kind.”

One of the biggest obstacles to Trump's vision of a new Middle East is that Israel has none of it. While Trump touts his ceasefire, Israel continues to bomb Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. At his meeting with Trump, Netanyahu is also expected to push for a resumption of the bombing campaign against Iran.

Netanyahu is not interested in the Middle East becoming a place of “partnership, friendship and investment.” Rather, the Israeli leader's strategy is clearly to maintain regional hegemony by promoting chaos. This is the proven imperialist method of divide and rule.

The conflicting goals of the United States and Israel can be seen most clearly in Syria. Cohen asserts that there is reason to hope for an end to the civil war in Syria, with a unified nation now being rebuilt under the leadership of President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former jihadist who is pursuing a policy of reconciliation. As Cohen noted:

However, significant progress has been made over the year. Mr. al-Sharaa has secured support from the United States, Russia and China. He achieved the lifting of economic sanctions. He remained steadfast in the face of repeated Israeli military provocations and began to lay the foundations of state institutions. Trump embraced him and he was ushered into the White House last month.

Unfortunately, while Israel and its Arab allies support the reconstruction of Syria, the Netanyahu government seeks security by keeping Syria divided. December 23, Washington Post report documented that Israel was arming Druze militias in Syria who want a separate state. According to the report, “some Israeli and American analysts argue that Israel's aggressive use of military force in Syria and its covert efforts to promote Druze separatism were counterproductive and undermined relations at a time when Sharaa appeared to be seeking diplomatic détente.”

This was reported by former senior Pentagon official Dana Strole. Washington Post:

“There is growing frustration in Washington that Israel's actions set back what most in Washington and everyone in the Middle East would actually like to see: a stabilized, united Syria. The main argument for Israel is that you actually have leaders in Damascus who are willing to say the word 'Israel' and talk about a potential future with normalized relations, and you just keep bombing or look for a surrogate partner to work through.”

Trump positions himself as an “American nationalist first.” There is every reason to oppose Israel's belligerent foreign policy for the sake of American national interests as well as for the sake of international peace. It is difficult to find any rational benefit for the United States in Syria falling back into chaos, or in Iran being bombed. Moreover, criticism of Israel's belligerence is growing not only among liberals, but also among also on the right MAGAwith voices such as Marjorie Taylor Greene and Tucker Carlson warning of the danger of new wars in the Middle East.

Despite this changing political landscape, there is no reason to believe that Trump can stand up to Netanyahu. Everything about Trump's record suggests that his approach to foreign policy is fundamentally feckless and that he can easily be influenced by hawkish voices that remain in power within the Republican Party. While there are areas of disagreement between Netanyahu and Trump, the more important difference is how invested each is in their policy preferences. Netanyahu is largely invested in his vision of Israel as a hegemonic power in the Middle East, willing to wreak havoc to repel any possible enemy. Trump, by contrast, has no deep political commitments, making him vulnerable to the blandishments of Netanyahu and the pro-Israel lobby. Trump's peace plans are a flimsy house of cards that Netanyahu will easily destroy.