Israel’s right-wing government celebrated Donald J. Trump’s victory on Wednesday morning as if it had just won the American election itself.
“Dear Donald and Melania Trump, Congratulations on history’s greatest comeback!” Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, wrote on a social media soon after Mr. Trump’s victory speech.
“Your historic return to the White House offers a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America. This is a huge victory!” the Israeli leader enthused, signing off, “In true friendship, yours, Benjamin and Sara Netanyahu.”
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s ultranationalist minister of national security, posted a festive “Yesssss” on social media, along with emojis of a flexed bicep and the Israeli and American flags, even before the last polls had closed in Alaska.
An overwhelming majority of Jewish Israelis view Mr. Trump as a better option for Israel’s interests than Vice President Kamala Harris. They assume that he will go easier on Israel than the Biden administration, which has widely supported Israel’s war effort in Gaza over the past year but has also criticized the humanitarian aspects of it, including the high civilian death toll.
Mr. Netanyahu may now feel emboldened by the prospect of a more amenable U.S. president as he continues to insist on total victory in Israel’s wars and engages in a high-wire exchange of blows with its archenemy, Iran.
In a sign of lesser restraint, Mr. Netanyahu on Tuesday fired his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, a main point man with the Biden administration, against a background of differences over ending the war in Gaza and over pressing domestic issues that were threatening the stability of Mr. Netanyahu’s governing coalition.
Mr. Trump has, like the Biden administration, called for Israel to wrap up the wars in Gaza and Lebanon that were set off by the Hamas-led terrorist attack against Israel 13 months ago, but analysts say that a Trump administration would probably support ending them on terms more favorable to Israel.
That sentiment is largely based on Mr. Trump’s first term, when he bestowed political gifts on Mr. Netanyahu’s previous government, including moving the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
But analysts also note that the policies of the next Trump administration are unknown, and that Mr. Trump is notoriously unpredictable.
“I think Netanyahu prefers the unpredictability of Trump over Harris,” said Kobi Michael, a fellow at the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy, a conservative-leaning Jerusalem-based research group. “But there’s a degree of wishful thinking,” he said, “because Trump can easily turn on us in seconds.”
Mr. Trump’s relationship with Mr. Netanyahu has become more complicated. Last year, Mr. Trump publicly accused the Israeli prime minister of having let the United States down by pulling out of an operation to kill Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the leader of Iran’s Quds Force, at the last minute in 2020.
Still, analysts said, there is likely to be a natural affinity between a second Trump administration and Mr. Netanyahu’s current governing coalition, the most right-wing and religiously conservative in Israeli history.
The Trump victory may also bolster Mr. Netanyahu at home at a time of political turmoil after Mr. Gallant’s dismissal.
“A Trump win strengthens Netanyahu politically at home, because there’s a feeling he’s on our side,” said Mazal Mualem, an Israeli political commentator for Al-Monitor, a Middle East news site, and the author of a biography of the Israeli leader, “Cracking the Netanyahu Code.”
“It gives Netanyahu a tailwind,” she added.
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