Good post - I think it's too early to tell on Israel, though. Certainly demanding an end to the war is already causing Bibi some problems. I'm not sure what the practical implications of folk like Stefanik will be when it comes to Saudi normalization, for example. So while Trump does have lots of these Christian Zionist types around him, I don't think he's particularly emotionally committed to their positions. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
True. I agree, too early to tell. I feel like he doesn't want the war in Gaza to restart but pretty much anything which doesn't cross over the threshold into war, he will be okay with. And he's not really committed to the Christian Zionist agenda, but he's also not going to stand in the way of the things they want happening. But I admit I don't have a good grasp at all on what Netanyahu's next moves are likely to be. Are you going to write a post about Netanyahu/Trump and what comes next?
Ah thanks, I missed that one. I think like you say there it's about whether Hamas offers a pretext or not. Trump entered this in media res and his initial desire in that context is to look like a peacemaker. But I can easily see that changing if the circumstances change. And I think the Israeli right might actually find him quite easy to push around on a lot of issues. But as always, he is unpredictable and has few core beliefs, so it's hard to say.
Good post - I think it's too early to tell on Israel, though. Certainly demanding an end to the war is already causing Bibi some problems. I'm not sure what the practical implications of folk like Stefanik will be when it comes to Saudi normalization, for example. So while Trump does have lots of these Christian Zionist types around him, I don't think he's particularly emotionally committed to their positions. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
True. I agree, too early to tell. I feel like he doesn't want the war in Gaza to restart but pretty much anything which doesn't cross over the threshold into war, he will be okay with. And he's not really committed to the Christian Zionist agenda, but he's also not going to stand in the way of the things they want happening. But I admit I don't have a good grasp at all on what Netanyahu's next moves are likely to be. Are you going to write a post about Netanyahu/Trump and what comes next?
Well I wrote this: https://loveoftheland.substack.com/p/going-through-the-phases
But I try to keep my predictions to a minimum!
Ah thanks, I missed that one. I think like you say there it's about whether Hamas offers a pretext or not. Trump entered this in media res and his initial desire in that context is to look like a peacemaker. But I can easily see that changing if the circumstances change. And I think the Israeli right might actually find him quite easy to push around on a lot of issues. But as always, he is unpredictable and has few core beliefs, so it's hard to say.
On that score, I thought this was pretty interesting analysis (even if I disagree with Beinart on a lot of other matters): https://jewishcurrents.org/trumps-israel-instincts-dont-matter
Yep, that rings true to me. I think his milieu is so overwhelmingly sympathetic to the Israeli right that this will be the main driver of policy.