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Is Trump really Netanyahu’s 'dream president’?

Benjamin Netanyahu must cope with a Trump administration whose policies are not yet known while facing pressures from the far right to annex settlement blocs and other pressures from Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, the prime minister's rival from the pragmatist right.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech in his Jerusalem office December 28, 2016. REUTERS/Baz Ratner     TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RTX2WRPD

When he served as prime minister for the Likud, Ariel Sharon was often pressured by his own party to reject US demands to rein in construction in the settlements and move forward in the negotiations with the Palestinians. Yet Sharon knew exactly how to derive political and diplomatic advantage from this pressure. The angrier people were at him, the better excuse he had for the White House as to why his hands were tied in his dealings with the Palestinians. Washington would then turn a blind eye to any continued construction in the West Bank.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also has taken advantage of this dynamic ever since returning to power in 2009. Whenever the Obama administration applied pressure on him, he cited his political constraints at home to show that he had limited space to maneuver politically. The more extreme the Likud Party grew, the more he could use this as an excuse. This benefited Netanyahu in another way, too. It allowed him to present himself before Likud supporters as the one person standing up to the pressures of a hostile US administration. His troubled relationship with President Barack Obama, which only deteriorated over the years, helped Netanyahu considerably in all of his recent election campaigns and whenever he found himself entangled in some political crisis.

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