If Trump wins, Israeli officials fear clash over inability to quickly end Gaza war
Officials point to coalition’s ‘constraints’ on Netanyahu; opposition MK says it would also be an issue if Harris wins, but PM ‘campaigns’ on standing up to Democrats, not GOP
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
Two senior Israeli officials have expressed concern to The Times of Israel over Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s repeated call for Israel to quickly end its war against Hamas in Gaza, fearing an inability to do so will lead to a clash if the former president returns to office in January.
“There are internal political constraints to ending the war quickly,” one of the Israeli officials from the security establishment said on Sunday.
While declining to elaborate, he appeared to refer to the makeup of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, which includes far-right elements who have opposed hostage deal proposals conditioned on a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
There is also near-unanimity within the Netanyahu government against allowing the Palestinian Authority to play a role in the governance of Gaza. A second Israeli official said this has contributed to the war dragging on, as Jerusalem struggles to find a viable alternative to fill the power vacuum in Gaza, thereby allowing Hamas to regain its footing in areas where the IDF has left.
A lawmaker from the opposition — also speaking on condition of anonymity — acknowledged that dragging out the war through the 2025 US presidential inauguration would sour relations with Vice President Kamala Harris if she were to win in November.
However, “Netanyahu has managed clashes with Democratic presidents without paying a heavy price. In fact, he campaigns on his ability to stand up to them,” the lawmaker said.
“A fight with Trump is something he hasn’t really had to deal with, and I think it’s something he’d want to avoid, but [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich and [National Security Minister Itamar] Ben Gvir may not let him,” the MK added, referring to the far-right cabinet ministers whose support the premier needs to remain in power.
Netanyahu and Trump enjoyed a very warm relationship from 2016 to 2020, when the former president moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem, pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights and oversaw the Abraham Accords.
But their ties quickly soured after Netanyahu recognized Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Trump went on to describe the Israeli premier as an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians and repeatedly claimed Netanyahu had backed out of plans to assist the US in killing top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.
The two have apparently patched up their differences in the lead-up to the November 5 presidential election, with Trump hosting Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago resort in July, and speaking on the phone several times since then.
The opposition lawmaker, who spoke to The Times of Israel on Monday, said Netanyahu “has a clear preference for Trump to win the election… But be careful what you wish for.”
The MK pointed to Trump’s close ties with Arab leaders, who have gradually turned away from Israel as the war in Gaza has dragged on and who have been among the most vocal advocates for an immediate ceasefire.
“I have great respect for Saudi Arabia and for many of the other rulers over there — many of the other countries over there,” Trump told the Saudi-run Al-Arabiya network in an interview over the weekend.
Riyadh had been in talks with the Biden administration about normalizing ties with Israel, but those negotiations stalled amid the war in Gaza, with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman declaring last month that such a deal would not happen without the establishment of a Palestinian state. The stance represented a significant hardening of the Gulf kingdom’s condition on the Palestinian issue, in relation to the less far-reaching measures it was demanding before the war, US and Arab officials told The Times of Israel.
While the opposition lawmaker suggested that Trump would be more inclined to heed the advice of his Gulf allies, those were the same leaders he snubbed in 2017 when he recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The opposition MK noted that Trump will have no more elections to win and asserted that the Republican nominee has not necessarily put his disagreements with Netanyahu behind him.
