Dr. Gil Murciano, CEO of the Mitvim Institute:
“Trump’s business trip to the Middle East presents a new strategic reality: the American president has, for now, chosen to sideline Israel and its considerations in his foreign policy.
The renewed war in Gaza has rendered the Israeli government a tangible obstacle to the implementation of his regional plans. The master of major deals appears to understand what the Gulf States have been saying for months: the Israeli government simply has nothing to offer diplomatically.
Netanyahu’s government, which has reduced its foreign policy to a voluntary dependency on Trump, now finds itself with no one left to rely on. Its messianic agenda is eroding Israel’s most vital strategic- security asset — its special relationship with the United States. A key pillar of that alliance—maintaining Israel’s qualitative military edge — has already been effectively dismantled through America’s unprecedented arms deals with Qatar and other Gulf states. Israel has ceded its position as Washington’s foremost strategic partner in the region to Saudi Arabia.
This diplomatic bypass delivers a sobering wake-up call to the far-right, who now realize that Trump is not the historic, pro-annexation leader they had hoped for. They sought an American hawk and received instead a businessman with a far more limited commitment to the special U.S.–Israel relationship — especially in comparison to his much-maligned predecessor. Trump is content to let Israelis pursue their messianic ambitions vis-à-vis the Palestinians — so long as they don’t interfere with his broader regional agenda.
In this sense, Trump’s policy amounts to a double blow for Israel: first, because he has chosen to disregard Israeli interests in shaping critical regional dynamics; and second, because he has so far declined to shield Israel from itself — and from its own extremists”.
