“A true dream team for those who care that the relationship between Israel and the United States is strong, vibrant and unbreakable,” is how he defined Matt Brookshead of the Republican Jewish Coalition, Donald Trump’s foreign policy appointments for his next administration. No wonder: after flirting with the Arab vote and even receiving support from groups of moderate Jews who did not view Biden’s policy in the Middle East favorably, Trump has taken a turn to the right choose a series of representatives who fit perfectly into the Netanyahu government and their ultra-Orthodox allies.
Marco Rubiothe Florida senator who was already Trump’s rival during the 2016 primaries, will be responsible for directing the Secretary of Statethe most important position in American diplomacy, a sort of Minister of Foreign Affairs. Throughout last spring, Rubio defended, against his own government’s position, the need for Israel to enter Rafah and completely eliminate Hamas. He also publicly stated that assassination of Hasan Nasrallah and much of Hezbollah’s leadership was not just a righteous act of defense, but “a benefit to humanity.”
At a time when the United States and Iran are flirting with a new nuclear agreement to replace the one promoted by Barack Obama with China and Russia… and from which Trump himself dissociated himself in 2018, the Rubio’s presence reassures the most conservative Israelis. His support for the Jewish state has always been unwavering, as has his criticism of Iran, one of his great demons along with China.
It remains to be seen how the circle is squared, but the impression is that the pact with Iranif it is produced, will include some form of disengagement from the Islamic Republic regarding their militias. This way, Israel will have more freedom in the region.
The future of the West Bank
In this margin comes the possibility of annexing the West Bank. This option was not only repudiated by the entire international community by going against thirty years of agreements and negotiations, but that the Netanyahu He rejected it several times. Now their ultra-Orthodox partners defend it firmly: Israel must annex Gaza and the West Bank because they belong to it according to sacred writings and we cannot speak of occupation, but of recovery of what belongs to it.
Along the same lines, the former American governor of Tel Aviv, former governor of Arkansas and well-known evangelical Christian, spoke at the time. Mike Huckabee.
Mike Huckabee and Donald Trump at a US presidential election campaign event in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania.
Reuters
A close friend of Benjamin Netanyahu, Huckabee believes that Israel has everyone has the right to annex the West Bank…since the West Bank does not exist. “This is Judea and Samaria,” he declared in 2017, referring to the name the region receives in the Bible, while defending the Jewish colonies in the region, because they were the real owners. In fact, according to Huckabee, Nor does there exist a Palestinian community as such, It would only be an Arab invention to attack Israel.
The other appointments present very similar profiles on this issue: the deputy Elise Stefanikfuture United States Ambassador to the UN, was one of those who protested the Biden administration’s inaction when college campuses The East Coast was filled with rallies against Israeli attacks on Gaza. Given the tense relations between the international organization and the Netanyahu government, his election clearly shows which side the Trump administration will be on.
As a mediator, a golf businessman
It doesn’t stop there: the next director of the CIA, John Ratcliffe He then congratulated Israel for having “marched to the throat” of Iran and its militias. Finally, the special envoy to the Middle East, a position of enormous responsibility given the current context, will most likely be Steven C. Witkoff, a businessman of Jewish origin with no prior political experience and whose sole merit for this position seems to be the close friendship that unites him with the president-elect. Witkoff and Trump often play golf together at Mar-A-Lago and, in fact, the businessman was present last September when the Secret Service arrested a gunman ready to kill the Republican candidate.
Witkoff will be responsible for mediating between Arabs, Iranians and Israelis and his election will likely be linked to the “pragmatic approach” that the next administration boasts. His idea is to approach foreign policy as one who negotiates with other companies, always clearly indicating what his interests are and without the ambiguities and signs of weakness that characterized the Joe Biden government, both in Ukraine and in in Gaza.
In fact, Biden himself met this Wednesday, according to the news portal Axioswith Trump for two hours to work on the transition and transfer of power. Concerning Israel, Biden insisted his successor was fighting to reach a deal that would free the hostages who have been kidnapped by Hamas and Islamic Jihad for more than thirteen months. Apparently, Trump agreed on the importance of the issue and both committed to resolving it before January 20, the date of the new president’s inauguration. It is now a matter of convincing the terrorists.
