Gaza and Lebanon for Iran: Inside Netanyahu’s gamble on Donald Trump
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clearly has high hopes for President-elect Donald Trump, but is nervously watching the new administration take shape.
TEL AVIV — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the victory of President-elect Donald Trump, yet there are no guarantees the American leader will indeed deliver what the Israeli right is hoping for.
Netanyahu was the first Middle Eastern leader to congratulate Trump on his victory and the first world leader to call him on the phone after his win.
The Israeli premier and his people bet on a Trump comeback throughout the US presidential election campaign. With the results in, they celebrated all night but woke up with a headache.
Netanyahu hedged his bets and downplayed his support for Trump over the past few months. He paid dearly the last time he publicly backed a Republican presidential candidate. Mitt Romney’s 2012 defeat deepened Netanyahu’s adversarial relationship with President Barack Obama, who was elected to a second term and forced him to agree to US-mediated negotiations with the PLO on the establishment of a Palestinian state.
