A Bad Night For Trump But It Was SO Much Worse For Israel

Right, so on the morning of the American elections, Trump appeared on Fox, doing his best impression of a man who understands foreign policy, to explain why shovelling cash to Israel was suddenly no longer a good political idea. By the end of the night, his party had managed to lose Congress, and Netanyahu’s rivals quickly pounced on the defeat and criticised the prime minister for relying too much on his “special relationship” with Trump, something he had been selling to Israeli voters as his superpower. Awkward doesn’t quite cover it when your entire election pitch boils down to: keep me with you, I’ve got Trump on speed dial. Before either election, Netanyahu had released a phone call thanking Trump for his endorsement, practically buffing the handset with flattery. This was the friendship that was supposed to rain blessings on Israel: a VIP pass to the White House, a blank cheque from Uncle Sam, that he was the prime minister who could actually wrangle Washington. But then came the morning of the American election, when reality crashed the party, not so much in a teenage hi-jinks kind of a way, more driving a truck through the side of the house. As such, Trump started musing about axing the annual aid package to Israel, $4Bn of it. He insisted Netanyahu was on board. And when Fox lobbed him a softball, as they are wont to do, he launched into a ramble about how the money wasn’t even needed. For Netanyahu, that’s some top-tier friendship he’s got there: hyping up the relationship for all he’s worth, and then your indispensable American mate goes on national television brainstorming ways to cut you off financially, because you’ve just become a very, very bad bet.