Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Photo / Getty Images
The Knesset has never seen a day like it; a United States president taking the podium to unilaterally declare a new “golden age” for Israel and the Middle East.
Benjamin Netanyahu looked tense and drawn throughout Donald Trump’s hour-long speech in Jerusalem yesterday. There were smiles, of course, but there was no joy in his face.
It’s not hard to see why. He’s stuck between a Trumpian rock and an extremist hard place of his own making.
He also faces corruption and war crimes charges, plus elections next year.
Flanking him in the Knesset were Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, the two extremist, ethno-nationalist ministers he relies on to keep his government afloat.
They do not want peace and have made no secret of it.
They want a greater Israel, one that encompasses all of Gaza and the West Bank.
This is why they voted against Trump’s 20-point peace deal last week, even though it cleared the way for the release of Israel’s hostages after two years of war.
“Immediately after the abductees return home, the state of Israel must continue to strive with all its strength to fully eradicate Hamas and completely demilitarise Gaza so that it no longer poses a threat to Israel,” Smotrich said.
During his address to the Knesset, Trump made no secret of the fact that Netanyahu had also wanted to fight on.
He had done a “great job” and was a “great man” but had achieved all he could “by force of arms”, said the US President.
“The timing of this [deal to end the fighting] is brilliant, and I said, ‘Bibi, you’re going to be remembered for this far more than if you kept this thing going, going, going, kill, kill, kill’,” Trump added.
“You’ve won … now it is time to translate these victories against terrorists on the battlefield into the ultimate prize of peace and prosperity for the entire Middle East.”
The trouble is there are not many left in Israel, let alone the Knesset, who really believe in peace anymore.
What remained of the idealist left was all but wiped out on October 7 two years ago.
Today, foreigners who bring up the word are generally laughed at and accused of being “naive” and “weak”. The only thing that counts in the Middle East is strength, you are told.
But peace it is, according to Trump, the world’s most powerful man. And not just any peace, but eternal peace.
“This will be remembered as the moment that everything began to change,” Trump told the Knesset. “It will be the golden age of Israel, and the golden age of the Middle East.”
For Netanyahu, this poses an extreme dilemma, one that will define his fate.
Should he fully embrace Mr Trump’s vision and reinvent himself as a peacemaker, or simply pay lip service to the idea of peace in the hope that the great man will soon move on?
Shortly after Trump touched down in Israel, Netanyahu was confronted with that decision but choked.
In a classic piece of high-stakes Trumpian diplomacy, it was announced that Netanyahu would travel with the US President to the Middle East peace summit in Egypt later that day.
The invitation raised the prospect of Netanyahu sitting in the same room as the region’s most important Arab leaders, including Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority. What better or more dramatic way to usher in the new “golden age”.
It was not to be. Trump is good at bouncing even the most recalcitrant leaders into doing things they would rather not do, but this time it didn’t work.
On a three-way call apparently instigated by the US, Netanyahu was asked to attend the summit by the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.
Initially he agreed, but 30 minutes later the trip was off. Netanyahu would not be going because of a Jewish holiday, his office unconvincingly claimed.
It was quite a decision given that the conference in Egypt was intended to cement the ceasefire in Gaza and kickstart the remaining elements of Trump’s 20-point peace plan.
Perhaps he still has time to change his mind, but for the moment it looks like the role of global peacemaker is not for Netanyahu.
More likely, he will stick to what he knows best and seek another term in office as Israeli Prime Minister in the spring of next year.
Boosted by the release of the hostages, he may calculate that Israel’s voters will back him for an historic fourth term, despite his ongoing corruption trial.
Trump suggested to Israel’s President Isaac Herzog that Netanyahu should be pardoned. “Cigars and Champagne, who the hell cares about that?!” Trump told the Knesset.
Only a fool would write off Netanyahu’s electoral prospects given he has already been in power for 18 years, but things could also swing the other way.
It was on Netanyahu’s watch that October 7 happened and he was loudly booed by a vast crowd gathered to celebrate the adoption of the US peace plan when his name was mentioned in Tel Aviv at the weekend.
On the right, his supporters may worry that Israel is becoming little more than a US protectorate, its actions dictated not by Jerusalem but Washington.
Worse than that, the wider Israeli population, which for two long years has been wrapped up in the trauma of October 7, may soon be looking for a fall guy.
The horrors of the war in Gaza, in which more than 67,800 Palestinians are reported to have died, have yet to hit home in Israel; ditto the degree to which large parts of the rest of world have turned against it.
Now that the surviving hostages are free and the fighting has stopped, Israel’s voters may turn once again to rebuilding the reputation of the Jewish state.
If that happens, it may not be a great victory that awaits Netanyahu but a terrible defeat – one that could see him jailed or seeking exile in Miami.
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