As Netanyahu Heads to Washington, Trump Is Already a Close Ally

Before President Barack Obama was sworn into office in 2009, Benjamin Netanyahu called the Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas out of the blue and asked for a lesson in what was essentially a foreign tongue: the language of Democrats.

“I speak Republican and you speak Democratic, and I need the intermediary,” said Mr. Netanyahu, who was about to become prime minister of Israel, according to Mr. Pinkas. He added: “Netanyahu always thought of himself as some pedigree neocon that belongs in the right wing of the Republican Party.”

Mr. Netanyahu, who will meet with President Trump at the White House on Monday, is once again conversing with his preferred party, and the difference has been stark.

Where former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had sought to put some restrictions on Mr. Netanyahu’s military campaign in Gaza, the Trump administration has made no such demand. Where Mr. Biden criticized Mr. Netanyahu’s attempted overhaul of Israel’s courts, Mr. Trump has made attacks of his own against American judges.

“They are unshackled,” said Natan Sachs, the director of the Center for Middle East Policy and a senior fellow in the foreign policy program at the Brookings Institution. “A lot of concerns that the previous White House kept making about humanitarian aid, about limiting civilian casualties, these concerns are just not voiced anymore.”

Looming over the meeting this week is a point of tension: Mr. Trump’s sweeping tariffs, which did not spare Israel. Mr. Netanyahu’s office said the two men plan to discuss the tariff issue, the war in Gaza, Israel-Turkey relations, Iran and the International Criminal Court.

“I can tell you that I am the first international leader, the first foreign leader, who will meet with President Trump on the issue, which is so important to the Israeli economy,” Mr. Netanyahu said of the tariffs. “There is a long line of leaders who want this regarding their economies. I think that it reflects the special personal link, as well as the special ties between the U.S. and Israel.”

All recent American administrations have allied themselves, to varying degrees, with Israel, although Mr. Biden and Mr. Netanyahu had a long and complicated history. Mr. Biden referred to the Israeli leader as a “close, personal friend of over 33 years,” and Mr. Netanyahu referred to Mr. Biden as an “Irish American Zionist.”

Mr. Biden also grew frustrated with Mr. Netanyahu’s conduct in office, criticizing his overhaul of Israel’s judiciary. And the American president used profanities over how Israel carried out the war in Gaza in response to the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas.

“You know the perception of Israel around the world increasingly is that you’re a rogue state, a rogue actor,” Mr. Biden told Mr. Netanyahu, after an airstrike in Iran.

There was a different reaction when Israel consulted the White House recently about aerial attacks across the Gaza Strip. The response from the Trump administration? Give ’em hell.

“The Trump administration and the White House were consulted by the Israelis on their attacks in Gaza,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said on Fox News, adding: “All those who seek to terrorize, not just Israel, but also the United States of America, will see a price to pay. All hell will break loose.”

The Israeli airstrikes ended a temporary cease-fire with Hamas that began in January and raised the prospect of a return to all-out war. More than 400 people, including children, were killed in the first hours of the strikes, Gaza’s health ministry said.

Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Trump have also found common cause in their criticism of their countries’ judges. Mr. Trump has railed against judges who have blocked some of his administration’s actions, including his invoking of wartime powers to speed up deportations. He has called for one judge in particular to be impeached, as Mr. Netanyahu cheered him on.

“In America and in Israel, when a strong right wing leader wins an election, the leftist Deep State weaponizes the justice system to thwart the people’s will,” Mr. Netanyahu wrote on social media. “They won’t win in either place! We stand strong together.”

Elliott Abrams, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said there was simply “much more trust on the part of the Israelis in the Trump administration.”

“The vice president, the secretary of state, secretary of defense, national security adviser, they’re all viewed as very pro-Israel,” Mr. Abrams, who worked in foreign policy positions for three Republican presidents, including Mr. Trump. “And that was not true of the Biden administration, which was viewed as sympathetic, but leaning toward restraining Israel.”

To be sure, Mr. Trump and Mr. Netanyahu have had their ups and downs.

In Mr. Trump’s first term, Mr. Netanyahu angered Mr. Trump with the rather innocuous act of congratulating his successor, Mr. Biden, after the presidential election in 2020.

But in Mr. Netanyahu’s view, the first Trump presidency was a boon for Israel. The American president moved the United States Embassy to Jerusalem and paid little attention to the Palestinians while siding with Israel on its claims over Palestinian territory in the West Bank.

Then, soon after retaking office, Mr. Trump proposed that the United States should seize control of Gaza and permanently displace the entire Palestinian population of the devastated seaside enclave, one of the most brazen ideas that any American leader has advanced about the region. He has since made some distance from that proposal.

But his musing about the mass removal of the Palestinians came during a meeting with Mr. Netanyahu, who smiled throughout Mr. Trump’s remarks and later heaped praise on him.

“You cut to the chase,” Mr. Netanyahu told Mr. Trump. “You see things others refuse to see. You say things others refuse to say, and after the jaws dropped, people scratch their heads and they say, ‘You know, he’s right.’”

Many condemned Mr. Trump’s suggestion as immoral and illegal. But polls showed right-wing Israelis who make up Mr. Netanyahu’s base widely supported the idea, and the American president has been popular in Israel.

The fact that Mr. Netanyahu’s base backs Mr. Trump gives him unique power in the country as Israel and Hamas negotiate the release of hostages and a cease-fire, Mr. Sachs said.

“They fear Trump more, and they do think he’s unpredictable,” Mr. Sachs said. “The direct talks with Hamas, this was done without Israeli knowledge. It’s something that a more iconoclastic president like Trump is willing to do, and Israel is loath to cross him. He has a better chance to more forcefully get whatever direction he wants.”

Steven Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s Middle East envoy, has been in negotiations about seeking a new cease-fire agreement. Mr. Netanyahu has selected Ron Dermer, a former Republican activist with close ties to Mr. Trump to participate in cease-fire talks.

Mr. Witkoff sent a clear message to Hamas before the airstrikes began: “President Trump has made it clear that Hamas will either release hostages immediately, or pay a severe price.”

But as the war once again ramps up with Mr. Trump’s blessing, the Trump administration will also begin to assume ownership of the war, said Ned Lazarus, an associate professor of international affairs at George Washington University’s Elliott School.

“Netanyahu has had conflict with every one of the multiple U.S. presidents, but he is obviously on much friendlier terms with Trump. He listens to what Trump says,” he said. “This is a renewal of the war. This is Trump’s war.”