Despite a long-standing relationship with Netanyahu, Trump is shielding him as Israel's election nears

The U.S. president has not endorsed the Israeli prime minister ahead of the October 27 election amid a shift in public sentiment.

Washington, DC, United States – Since first entering the White House in 2017, Donald Trump has presented Israel's right-wing wish list and pursued a foreign policy that has helped the political fortunes of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Israeli leader, for his part, has positioned himself as the best steward of Israel's most important foreign relations, and has countered a number of public criticisms and publicized grievances from Trump that have produced little tangible change in policy.

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End of List But despite the two's long history, Trump has so far taken a firm approach to Israel's October 27 election. In the vote, Netanyahu's Likud party and the far-right coalition he leads are under increasing threat from Gadi Eisenkot, the leader of Yashar's party and the opposition bloc he is seeking to build.

According to Youssef Munayer, director of the Palestine/Israel program at the Arab Center in Washington, D.C., it's a ambivalence — at least publicly — that has likely been fueled by changing political winds in the U.S. and Israel, as well as the evolving relationship between Trump and Netanyahu.

"He seems to be more distant than you might think given Trump's previous support for that right-wing ally, given the history of Trump and Netanyahu's relationship, and how close Trump and Netanyahu have been," Munir told Al Jazeera.

The US president avoided directly endorsing Netanyahu three times in a recent interview with Time magazine, even as he defended the Israeli prime minister's leadership ahead of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel.

As for Eysencott, he conceded, "I don't hear bad things."

To be sure, Trump's actions toward Israel — and especially Netanyahu — have often spoken much louder than his words.

During his first term in office from 2017 to 2021, Trump moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, recognized Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights, pulled out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and led a series of normalization deals with Arab states that sought to sidestep the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

In his second term, which began in January 2025, in the midst of Israel's genocide in Gaza, he delivered even the most destructive US weapons to Israel, intensified the International Criminal Court (ICC) crackdown, and, as a jewel, entered into a global economic war with Iran.

Trump has also called for a pardon for Netanyahu in his ongoing corruption trial, having hosted the Israeli leader at least seven times since returning to the White House last year, far more than any other world leader.

Throughout their relationship, there have been hints of disagreement over Netanyahu's obstruction of Washington's efforts for a more lasting peace in Gaza and an end to Gaza. The war with Iran has never translated into real policy change.

"It's a relationship that they've carefully crafted for public consumption, and the few juicy bits we've learned are almost entirely Trump's choice," said Michael Omarman, Israel-Palestine director at the Washington-based DAWN think tank, who did not rule out a sweeping final U.S. gesture to bolster Netanyahu.

He told Al Jazeera: "I don't think Netanyahu is abandoned by Trump. "But he is also a realist and has seen many of his favorite candidates in different countries lose and win elections."

Omarman assessed that the stakes for Trump may not be so great.

Eysenkot has promised a more moderate approach than Netanyahu, especially when it comes to curbing settler violence in the occupied West Bank. But these changes are mainly aimed at strengthening Israel's position among European governments and global public opinion, without much impact on the easygoing relationship with the Trump administration.

"I don't think we're going to see a lot of change vis-a-vis America because there doesn't seem to be a lot of friction in the relationship," he said.

"An Eysenkot government might stop dominating every single hill in the West Bank," he said. "They may allow more [aid] to Gaza, but they won't take any of the steps that have already been taken."

Mairav Zonszein, senior Israel analyst at Crisis Group International, also noted the changing context surrounding Trump-Netanyahu relations.

Trump's silence partly reflects the split within the Trump administration over Netanyahu's, which mirrors the wider split in the Republican Party as the US midterm elections approach.

"It's probably a combination of the Iran war and the split in the Trump administration with people like [Vice President J.

Public opinion polls have repeatedly shown that Republican support for Israel remains high, but has declined in recent years. Confidence in Netanyahu has also decreased within the party.

At the same time, perceptions of Trump's influence in Israel have changed, with Netanyahu's critics recognizing the US role in limiting Israel's operations in Lebanon, which threatened to destroy the June memorandum of understanding that briefly halted the US-Israeli war against Iran.

An Israel Democracy Institute poll released in June found that only 44 percent of Israeli Jews think Israel's security is important to Trump, down from 61 percent in March, shortly after the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran began.

Zon-Zin explained that Netanyahu, for his part, avoided billboards boasting of his close ties to Trump during the election cycle.

Instead, he has named what he sees as Israel's top regional and international enemies, including Hezbollah Secretary General Naim Qassem, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and New York City Mayor Zahran Mamdani.

Zonzin said Netanyahu highlights his "enemies versus his friends."