Netanyahu ghosted: Trump’s Gulf pivot sends shockwaves through Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems to have misplaced his hopes on President Donald Trump protecting his interests.
TEL AVIV — President Donald Trump’s exuberant swing through the Gulf states and his warm embrace of top regional players, including those hostile to Israel, has alarmed the Israeli government and further strained his relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu, as has been abundantly clear for weeks, is out of the loop. His once intimate relationship with Trump is no more as the US president pursues his instrumental agenda in the Gulf, the Middle East and beyond.
Series of blows
Trump’s surprise announcement that he was lifting US sanctions on Syria and his high praise for the country’s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, at their meeting in Saudi Arabia were just the latest blow. On his visit to Washington last month, Netanyahu specifically asked Trump to keep the sanctions in place, an Israeli official told the Associated Press on Wednesday.
