Donald Trump just stabbed Benjamin Netanyahu in the back
To give you an idea of how complex the democratic process is in Israel, it’s been more than a month since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party got pummeled in the election, and yet a new government still hasn’t been formed. The President of Israel initially tasked Netanyahu with forming a coalition, but no one wanted to work with him. So now Netanyahu’s rival Gantz has been tasked with forming a coalition, which will almost certainly not include Netanyahu.
That means we’re very likely to see Benjamin Netanyahu ousted from power soon, and then put on criminal trial for the corruption indictment he’s facing. Donald Trump and Netanyahu are close political allies, both because they’re bloodthirsty far-right xenophobic blowhards, and because they’re career criminals who have done severe harm to their respective countries. But now that Netanyahu is on his way down the tubes, Trump is stabbing him in the back.
It’s bad enough that Trump has failed to mutter even so much as a word of public support while Netanyahu was trying and failing to form a coalition government. The Jerusalem Post says that Netanyahu is now trying to get the United States to transfer $12 million to Palestinian security forces – a mere pittance in overall U.S. budgetary terms – yet Trump is outright refusing to do it.
Netanyahu is clearly looking for a last ditch lifeline here, and yet Donald Trump is making a point of stabbing him in the back. Trump surely figures that because Netanyahu will be in prison soon anyway, he might as well withhold the aid until Netanyahu’s successor is in power, and then try to curry favor with that person going forward. It’s a reminder that Trump always stabs his friends and allies in the back the minute they’re in too much hot water for his comfort. The White House officials caught up in Trump’s Ukraine scandal should take note accordingly.
