Nothing exceptional is wrong with a country’s leader hoping a fellow leader of an allied country wins re-election and stays in power. Some heads of state, whether due to ideology or personal chemistry, work well together, and the desire to continue that relationship is natural.
However, when that desire oversteps its boundaries and becomes a full-blown endorsement, it’s not only inappropriate; it’s also a flagrant example of foreign interference in another country’s election process.
Trump portrays Netanyahu as essential in fighting Iran
That’s what unfortunately happened earlier this week when US President Donald Trump, who until then had reined in his natural tendency to interfere, issued a clear, strong endorsement of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party for next week’s election.
Only five days after telling Newsmax that “in the world of [Israeli] politics, I don’t trust anybody,” Trump, in his usual hyperbolic fashion, posted on his Truth Social feed on Sunday: “To the great people of Israel, Bibi Netanyahu has been a Great Warrior Prime Minister and an even greater Partner for Peace in combating the Islamic Republic of Iran...”
Trump portrayed Netanyahu as indispensable to US efforts to combat Iran and intimated that if he was voted out of office, any other future Israeli leader would leave Washington to confront Tehran on its own.
On Tuesday, Trump, in an interview with N12, explained the endorsement, saying, “I decided to express support for Netanyahu because we have a good relationship, and we will continue to do good things together.”
The desire for a loyal and like-minded ally at the US’s side in the justified war on Iran is one thing, but to call on Israelis, faced with dozens of issues that Trump has nothing to do with, to vote for a candidate because it will make the global agenda of America’s president easier to implement is unprecedented and outrageous.
That’s not to say that lobbying and exerting influence in each other’s election process is something new for the United States and Israel.
Netanyahu once said, 'foreigners do not decide the outcome of Israeli elections'
In 1996, although not issuing a formal endorsement, then-president Bill Clinton covertly campaigned for Shimon Peres in his prime ministerial run against Netanyahu, an admission he made in a 2018 interview. Clinton and then-prime minister Peres met in Washington less than a month before the election, which Netanyahu ultimately won.
At the time, Netanyahu bristled at the perceived interference, telling the Knesset that “foreigners do not decide the outcome of the Israeli elections, not the American government, the king of Morocco, or Yasser Arafat.”
“I can’t find an example of any previous Israeli government whose prime minister, on the eve of elections, made a cynical attempt to use relations between Israel and the United States as a party advertisement,’’ Netanyahu added, foreshadowing the posters that have sprung up throughout the country this week, displaying a beaming Netanyahu and Trump.
Fortunately, Trump’s brazen endorsement of Netanyahu is unlikely to have much effect on next week’s election. Despite his actions that have aided Israel in its wars with its enemies and his efforts to secure the release of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza, Trump is as divisive in Israel as he is in the US.
The endorsement could backfire, undermining Netanyahu’s image as a strong leader and suggesting he is merely a Trump yes-man.
But regardless of its effect, the endorsement was just plain wrong. Israelis alone should decide whom to vote for in their election without the unsolicited advice or veiled threats from another country’s leader, even one as close as the United States.
The Israel-US relationship is much greater than the personal connection between Trump and Netanyahu. Long after they are both out of office, that relationship must stay strong and vital.
One can thank Trump for his devotion to Israel and his attempts to safeguard its security and boost its status in the region. At the same time, one can staunchly oppose his attempts to interfere in Israel’s internal politics.
Israeli voters face no shortage of issues as they decide whom to vote for in next week’s fateful election. The US president’s preference should not be one of them.