By Doina Chiacu and Alexander Cornwell
WASHINGTON/TEL AVIV, Oct 18 (Reuters) - US President Donald Trump on Sunday endorsed his ally Benjamin Netanyahu as the longtime Israeli prime minister struggles for an edge in next week's parliamentary election.
Trump praised Netanyahu as a "great warrior prime minister" and peace partner, crediting him with joining the United States in launching strikes on Iran in February. The conflict, in its seventh month, has disrupted energy markets globally and wreaked havoc across the Middle East, damaging critical infrastructure and destabilizing regional economies.
"Bibi Netanyahu has been Strong, Brave, and Brilliant in the face of tremendous opposition, including that coming from even Israel, itself," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
"Despite all of that, he has endured and, in fact, he has thrived! I have watched Bibi under the most trying of times. Normal men or women in such situations would have wilted under the pressure — But Bibi did not wilt, he actually got stronger, and maintains that same Strength today."
In his message, addressed to "the Great People of Israel," Trump added, "Please let this Letter serve to represent my Complete and Total Endorsement of Bibi Netanyahu in his upcoming Race for Re-Election as Prime Minister of Israel."
The Trump endorsement is not certain to give Netanyahu and his right-wing Likud party a boost in the October 27 national election, as Israeli public support for Trump has diminished amid Israeli-US disagreements over Iran.
Polls have suggested no candidate has a clear path to power. Israel's prime minister is chosen through coalition-building in parliament rather than by direct popular vote.
It will be Israel's first vote since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, that shook the country and plunged the Middle East into turmoil, as Israel went to war in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.
The election could determine whether Netanyahu remains in power after one of the most consequential periods in Israel’s history, or is defeated by centrist rivals promising to usher in a new era.
Netanyahu promptly expressed his thanks to his "dear friend Donald" on X, saying, "Together we will complete the mission!"
Trump has broken with longtime US tradition by endorsing candidates in elections in foreign countries including Hungary, Colombia, Argentina, Japan and Honduras.
ENDORSEMENT MIGHT HELP, CAN'T HURT
Trump's relationship with Netanyahu has been close but also fractious, with the president at times publicly and privately criticizing Israel's longest-serving prime minister.
The war that the US and Israel launched against Iran is unpopular with Americans, who vote November 3 in congressional elections, while support for Israel among Americans has also decreased over the Iran war and Israel's conduct in the three-year war in Gaza that Trump has promised to end. Both leaders on Sunday mentioned finishing the job in Iran.
Tamar Hermann, a senior research fellow at the non-partisan Israel Democracy Institute in Jerusalem, said Trump's late endorsement could help win back wavering Netanyahu voters but was unlikely to draw widespread support.
Most Israelis, even those who are critical of Netanyahu and his government, were largely in favor of the Iran war.
In an election this close, "it couldn't hurt him, and it might help," said analyst Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.
Netanyahu's religious-nationalist coalition is projected to lose its governing majority, although the opposition may also struggle to form a government, opinion polls show. That could lead to Netanyahu serving as a caretaker prime minister while another election is held.
The US president passed up earlier opportunities to endorse Netanyahu, perhaps because he wanted to see what leverage he could exercise on issues like Gaza or Lebanon, said Miller. In the end, he said, Trump sided with a leader he sees as strong and unfairly persecuted.
"However angry Trump may be at Netanyahu for pushing this Iran war, this in the end was a Trump decision," Miller added.
A Trump decision not to endorse Netanyahu would have raised "legitimate questions about whether or not the whole Iran venture was in fact something Trump should have done," he said.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington, Steve Scheer, Alexander Cornwell, Rami Ayyub in Israel; Editing by Joe Bavier and Cynthia Osterman)