Trump’s decision not to give Israel advanced warning that the US was signing a truce with Houthi rebels may signal a more serious split with Israel.
|
Listen To This Story
 |
Donald Trump’s announcement on Tuesday that the US would stop bombing Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who have been harassing shipping through the Red Sea and Suez Canal, took just about everybody by surprise, not least of all Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was not informed that the US was negotiating the deal with the help of Oman.
The US and Britain have carried out more than 800 airstrikes against Houthi positions over the last two months; the Houthis had clearly had enough. The terms of the deal call for the US to stop bombing Houthi positions in exchange for the Houthis agreeing not to attack US installations in the Middle East and to let international shipping alone.
Trump’s announcement came just after the US Navy had provided a protective air defense umbrella for Israeli jets that spent two days bombing Houthi installations and caused half a billion dollars in damage to the airport in Sanaa. The Israeli strike was in retaliation for earlier Houthi attacks against Israel, including a ballistic missile that exploded near the main terminal of Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. That attack caused some airlines to suspend flights to Israel for several days.
The Israelis had tried to intercept the Houthi missile but failed. The Houthis have been receiving material support from Iran, and the fact that the missile cut through Israel’s defenses may be an indication that Houthi weaponry is becoming considerably more sophisticated.
After Trump announced the US was dropping out of the fight, both Iran and the Houthis tried to present the deal as a victory. Iran boasted that it had encouraged the Houthis to stay away from attacking international shipping as a way of getting Israel to modify its policies in Gaza. Not surprisingly, Mohammad Ali Al-Houthi, a Houthi official, praised the truce as “a victory that severs American support for the temporary entity (Israel) and a failure for Netanyahu.”
The agreement, in fact, makes no mention of further US protection of Israel, and after it was publicized, a visibly angered Netanyahu announced that from now on Israel will defend itself alone. It’s not clear whether Israeli shipping will also be immune to future Houthi attacks. The agreement may have been left purposely vague to permit both sides to save face.
Have the Winds Shifted on Israel?
The more critical question is whether Trump’s announcement signals a major shift in US policy, especially after former National Security Advisor Michael Waltz’s sideways demotion and exile to the UN in New York and Marco Rubio’s takeover as head of the National Security Council. Waltz had reportedly been in discussions with Netanyahu over possible plans to bomb Iran’s nuclear installations. Despite the carnage caused by Netanyahu’s policies in Gaza, support for Israel remained strong among NSC members. Other members of Trump’s MAGA entourage are less committed.
In Israel, there is growing concern that Trump, who plans to make the first trip abroad of his second term in office to Saudi Arabia, lacks the emotional commitment to Israel that former president Joe Biden displayed.
Michael Scheuer, the former head of the CIA unit dedicated to tracking down Osama bin Laden, expressed views that are typical of those of a growing number of critics who feel that the US has larger interests in the Middle East than just supporting Israel.
“There has been no greater foreign policy catastrophe for the United States since the recognition of Israel,” Scheuer told me in a podcast discussion. “It has alienated our ability to deal with everyone on a fair basis because we don’t deal on a fair basis with them. They [the Israelis] take advantage of it through espionage, through theft, through selling our technology to the Chinese or the Russians as they please.
“It’s time to walk away from these people,” Scheuer continued, “and if they live, fine. No one has a right to exist on this earth. … If you don’t have a cohesive society, if you can’t defend yourself, if you aren’t a good neighbor, you’re not going to last very long at all.”
In Israel, there is growing concern that Trump, who plans to make the first trip abroad of his second term in office to Saudi Arabia, lacks the emotional commitment to Israel that former president Joe Biden displayed.
“Were it not for that dramatically Israel-supportive first term,” said Israeli journalist and author David Horovitz, “you might be forgiven for wondering whether Trump had taken office (in his second term) at strategic odds with Israel, … perhaps in the grip of the personal anti-Netanyahu animus that was so evident when he declared ‘F–k him’ after Netanyahu congratulated Mr. Biden for his 2020 presidential election victory.”
If the Israelis were not already worried, Trump’s decision not to include Israel in his upcoming Middle East tour appeared to be yet another troubling indication of a possible change in direction.
From the extended Trump family’s perspective, there is a lot of financial gain to be had in the Middle East, and very little of it comes from Israel.
Ever the transaction-oriented businessman, Trump may see the Middle East more in terms of profit than from America’s traditional emotional commitment to Israel. While Trump is the privileged guest of the Saudi royal family’s princes next week, his sons, Eric and Donald Jr., will be putting the finishing touches on a number of profitable business ventures.
These include a luxury hotel in Dubai; a proposed half-billion-dollar residential tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; a purchase of $2 billion in cryptocurrency backed by the Trump family, and a $5.5 billion golf course and villa complex in Qatar; and a $2.6 billion Trump Golf Community in Oman — not to mention a 2024 infusion of $2 billion in cash from Saudi investors and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund into Affinity Partners, an investment company whose sole owner is Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.
From the extended Trump family’s perspective, there is a lot of financial gain to be had in the Middle East, and very little of it comes from Israel.
That became apparent when Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, a Netanyahu confidant and former Israeli ambassador to the US, was on his way to Washington to lobby for including Israel on next week’s presidential tour. Before he could get started on the trip, Trump announced publicly that if he went to Israel at all, it would have to be later.
Dermer and his allies in the Trump administration were clearly caught in MAGA’s crosswinds.
