{"id":137195,"date":"2025-05-12T21:16:53","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T21:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/netanyahu-must-now-work-for-support-of-us-as-trump-tires-of-israels-war-in-gaza-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2025-05-12T21:16:53","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T21:16:53","slug":"netanyahu-must-now-work-for-support-of-us-as-trump-tires-of-israels-war-in-gaza-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/netanyahu-must-now-work-for-support-of-us-as-trump-tires-of-israels-war-in-gaza-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Netanyahu must now work for support of US as Trump tires of Israel\u2019s war in Gaza – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US president will not visit Israel on a trip to the Middle East and his envoy has reportedly said Netanyahu\u2019s government is drawing out the war
Trump\u2019s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff didn\u2019t mince his words. In a meeting late on Sunday with former hostages and relatives of those still held in Gaza, he told them Israel<\/a> is drawing out a war the US wants to end, local media reported.
On the eve of the release of Edan Alexander, the last living American being held by Hamas, Witkoff spelt out the gulf between his boss and the government of Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a>.
\u201cWe want to bring the hostages home, but Israel is not willing to end the war. Israel is prolonging it \u2013 despite the fact that we don\u2019t see where else we can go and that an agreement must be reached,\u201d Witkoff told the meeting, according to Channel 12 Television, quoting sources who were present.
It was the latest in a series of high-profile and high-stakes snubs from the White House which suggest that Israel\u2019s most important ally is frustrated with its government \u2013 and possibly losing interest in its fortunes.
\u201cTrump\u2019s not against Israel, but he doesn\u2019t care about Israel,\u201d said Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli diplomat. \u201cAs far as Trump is concerned, Netanyahu has become an irritant and an irritant that doesn\u2019t contribute to the bank account.\u201d
Trump may not have embarked on the open attacks that have characterised his relationship with other leaders fighting a war he wants to end, such as Ukraine\u2019s Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russia\u2019s Vladimir Putin, but recent policy moves have undermined Israeli security, weakened its diplomatic standing and flown against Israeli defence policy, particularly over how to handle Iran.
Last week Trump announced a ceasefire deal with the Iranian-backed Houthis<\/a> in Yemen which excluded Israel. He described the Houthi rebels as \u201cbrave\u201d just days after one of their missiles hit Israel\u2019s main airport, prompting many international airlines to suspend flights. Houthi attacks on Israel have continued.
He previously dismissed Israeli calls for military action against Iran, instead opening talks with Tehran on ending its nuclear programme.
Days after the Houthi ceasefire deal, news leaked that the Trump administration had dropped a Biden-era demand that linked progress on a Saudi Arabian civilian nuclear programme to normalising relations with Israel.
Saudi Arabia has ruled out normalisation while Israel is at war in Gaza<\/a>. Trump\u2019s move made clear he doesn\u2019t want his hands to be tied as he heads to Riyadh later this week to seal billions of dollars in expected deals.
His first trip to the region since returning to the White House will also include visits to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, but not Israel. That conspicuous absence from the presidential itinerary would have been unthinkable in recent decades.
Ilan Baruch, a former Israeli ambassador who now chairs the Policy Working Group, which advocates for a two-state solution, said: \u201cTrump, it seems, has embarked on a bluntly new trajectory.
\u201cIsrael was expecting the Trump administration to stay the course within a paradigm of \u2018shared convictions and mutual strategic interests\u2019. Trump is the first president in a generation to put this equation in doubt.\u201d
Strong, long-term support for Israel among much of Trump\u2019s Republican base means Netanyahu is in a better position to hold on to US support than a leader like the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Nadav Eyal, a research scholar at Columbia University and a commentator with the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.
\u201cAs to how serious the damage is, I would say right now it is not lasting \u2026 not a full blown crisis yet,\u201d he said. \u201cI suspect that both sides will try to mitigate, negotiate, and not make it a public confrontation.\u201d
Still, Netanyahu\u2019s celebration of Israel-US ties at the start of the year, when he was the first foreign leader invited to Trump\u2019s second-term White House, now look premature.
Although Alexander\u2019s release was agreed without Israeli input, Netanyahu responded initially not by thanking Trump but by in effect claiming credit for it.
\u201cThe expected release of IDF soldier Edan Alexander without anything in return will be possible due to the vigorous policy that we have led with the backing of President Trump, and thanks to the military pressure of IDF soldiers in the Gaza Strip,\u201d his office said in a statement before his planned release.
He is already facing the fury of hostage families and their supporters, who say he is extending the war \u2013 and their suffering \u2013 for personal political gain.<\/a> One, Einav Tsengauker, described the prime minister on Monday as an \u201cangel of death\u201d.
But Netanyahu\u2019s truculent response to the release of Alexander risks stirring up the anger of a far more potent enemy, whose endless appetite for praise and deference is now the basis of global foreign policy from Beijing to Brussels.
Trump\u2019s post celebrating Alexander\u2019s release spelt out what he wants to see next. \u201cHopefully this is the first of those final steps necessary to end this brutal conflict. I look very much forward to that day of celebration!\u201d
There is broad support inside Israel for ending the war in return for the release of all hostages, with opinion polls showing more than two-thirds of the country back a deal.
But those who want to carry on fighting include the leaders of two far-right parties at the heart of Netanyahu\u2019s coalition. That leaves Netanyahu potentially facing a choice between shoring up his government, or shoring up Israel\u2019s most important relationship.
\u201cIf he wants Trump back on his side, then he needs to do things that would cost him the coalition,\u201d said Pinkas, the former diplomat. \u201cIf you look at his biography and experience, he should be fully aware of all this. If you look at his behaviour, it\u2019s as if he has no idea what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The US president will not visit Israel on a trip to the Middle East and his envoy has reportedly said Netanyahu\u2019s government is drawing out the warTrump\u2019s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff didn\u2019t mince his words. In a meeting late on Sunday with former hostages and relatives of those still held in Gaza, he told […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":137196,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}