Alwaght- Last week, the US President Donald Trump published a message on social media urging the Israelis to once again trust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and vote for him in the Tuesday election. He repeated his message on Sunday night.
In his message, Trump again called on the Israelis to vote for Netanyahu in Tuesday's parliamentary elections so that the two could finish what Tel Aviv and Washington had started together. Trump described Netanyahu as a "warrior and outstanding prime minister," noted that their relationship was built on "achieving victories together," and reissued the endorsement he had announced a week earlier.
By joint cooperation with Netanyahu, Trump means the war against Iran, and available evidence points to the likelihood of another American and Israeli attack on Iran and the start of a third round of hostilities.
Trump's message came as Axios reported that Netanyahu had in recent days asked Trump to intensify his public support for his election campaign. An American source told Axios in this regard that the White House views Netanyahu's escalated actions as a sign of desperation and of his trailing in the election race.
Trump's support does not help Netanyahu
Trump had hoped that his repeated endorsements would shore up Netanyahu's political standing against his election rivals, but polling shows the Likud Party under Netanyahu and other right-wing parties slipping somewhat. Trump's last-minute efforts appear to have failed to lift his close ally's standing on Israel's political stage. Under such circumstances, a possible Netanyahu defeat could upend the political calculus of the Israeli regime, and within days what Trump calls a strategic partnership between the two sides could unravel.
World leaders typically back a political figure by spotlighting his positive achievements to persuade public opinion to vote for him, but Trump, in two separate messages, has broken with that practice, praising Netanyahu's negative traits and belligerent approach and presenting him to Israelis as a brave and powerful leader.
Yet it is precisely that belligerent approach that over the past three years has fueled settler discontent over security fallout and protracted conflict. Therefore, Trump's emphasis on such traits, rather than persuading Israeli public opinion to back Netanyahu, may backfire and become a deterrent to winning over voters, and the polling results make that reality abundantly clear.
Trump's support message worthless
The US president is trying to instill in settlers the notion that Israeli regime has become a major regional power under Netanyahu's premiership and that his reelection would guarantee that trajectory continues. Yet Netanyahu himself holds little hope for the occupier regime's future. In his latest interview with Radio FM 103, he accused Iran of trying to disrupt the Knesset elections while conceding that, despite the wars fought, the danger of Israel's destruction persists.
In a blatant contradiction, Netanyahu simultaneously claimed that the war with Iran and its allies had severely weakened them. More striking still, Netanyahu speaks of an existential Iranian threat against Tel Aviv while claiming only 10 percent of Iran's capacity remains, and that, in his view, even that small fraction is capable of wiping out this regime, a contradiction even the show's host found unacceptable.
Netanyahu has repeatedly claimed his wars are meant to secure Israelis' safety, but those conflicts have not only failed to deliver the security he promises, but also they have deepened concerns about the regime's future. His admission that the danger of the Israeli regime's collapse persists comes as warnings about escalating domestic crises and the prospect of collapse from within have intensified since the extremist government took office. A number of senior Israeli officials, criticizing hardline factions' policies and the consequences of the current course, have warned of deepening internal rifts and the regime's slide toward an all-encompassing crisis.
Trump, nonetheless, is working to cast Netanyahu as a hero and a brave leader, an approach that lays bare the contradictions in his policy. Trump has thus unwittingly put his finger precisely on Netanyahu's weak spot, because Netanyahu's warmongering policies have led public opinion to conclude that breaking out of this situation requires voting for his rivals and the right-wing current, and Trump's unvarnished endorsements cannot make them change their minds.
So Trump's two endorsements of Netanyahu in the space of a single week, rather than bolstering the Israeli prime minister's standing among Israelis, have damaged Trump's own political credibility and reputation, since polling shows the US president's supportive remarks have had no discernible effect on Israeli public opinion, and that voters are unwilling, merely because of Trump's unstinting backing of Israel, to line up behind a warmonger like Netanyahu, who over the past three years has driven the occupied territories toward mounting security and political crises.
This situation has even rendered seriously dim the prospects of the Israelis for celebrating the eighth decade of foundation of Israeli regime, so much so that as the Israeli President Isaac Herzog admitted, such a celebration may become a pipe dream for the Israelis.
