Donald Trump’s success in the foreign-policy sphere tends to come from his lack of sentimentality. The economic-normalization deal his administration brokered between Kosovo and Serbia, for example, was predicated on letting the sleeping dogs of history lie.
His Mideast diplomacy is generally not so different—the president is more personally involved but the relationships are no less transactional.
With one exception: Trump really does seem to have a soft spot for Israel. Whether it’s because he has a Jewish daughter and Jewish grandchildren or he just vibes well with naturally pro-American and anti-PC Israelis, the president appears to genuinely care about the Jewish state and its reputation in the world.
A few days ago, after the announcement of the deal to bring home the Israeli hostages, Trump said on Fox News: “I told Netanyahu that the most important thing is for people to love Israel again.” He reiterated the sentiment in his speech before the Israeli Knesset this morning: “The world is loving Israel again,” and he acknowledged that the war was taking a toll on the Jewish state’s reputation. Getting the world to “love Israel again” was clearly one of his war aims. That is worth noting on its own.
But it is especially worth noting in light of the obvious psychic pain all this love and affection is causing Steve Bannon and the other knights of the isolationist, anti-Israel right. Some in that group are silent today, hoping to slink off-stage unnoticed while the celebration of Israel’s victory over Hamas, and Trump’s proud declaration of that victory, reverberates among the friends of the free world.
Not Bannon. His insanity would not be otherwise worth highlighting except for the contrast it draws with the president and his foreign-policy team. Bannon described the atmosphere between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “clearly icy,” a strange way to characterize mutual ear-to-ear grins. Bannon was hallucinating this alternate reality in which, he declared, seemingly without irony: “This is a catastrophic defeat for the Israel First crowd,” a common anti-Semitic trope about disloyal Jews.
Why was it a “catastrophic defeat”? Because, Bannon said, the Israelis “pushed this Greater Israel project and it came crashing down around them.” He then ranted about the Mossad for a while and got angry on behalf of the Qataris, par for the woke-right course.
The “Greater Israel” comment is intended to convey worry that Israel is seeking to expand its borders through war, but of course Netanyahu does not want Gaza, just as Egypt was glad to be rid of it and refused to take it back when Israel offered in 1967. Gaza is a millstone not a medal—that’s why we’re in this situation to begin with.
Why would a grizzled veteran of the woke right like Bannon feel the need to pretend this was a “catastrophic defeat” for anybody but his own angry faction of the party?
One reason is the way Trump described the Gaza deal today at the Knesset: “What a victory it’s been, all right, what a victory.” That victory is not just Israel’s but America’s, and therefore it is a victory for the alliance of democracies. American victory is the isolationists’ kryptonite, as it vindicates the idea that America has an important role to play in the world and that it is fully capable of doing so.
Another way of saying “American victory” is “American success,” and the Bannon-Tucker-Owens wing of the right cannot abide American success. They can only tolerate American humility.
The other reason has to do with the sentimental nature of Trump’s attachment to Israel. Bannon and Tucker Carlson and the rest obviously lost their fight against the pro-Israel contingent within the administration, that’s not exactly news. But they could handle their defeat better if the president’s support for Israel in a military conflict at least required him to hold his nose. Instead, Trump is having the time of his life. He loves it when Israel wins. Bannon is the one who is tired of all the winning.
What this past year has revealed is that Trump likes Israel. That the special relationship between the two countries is still there, still holding on, despite the woke right’s attempt to sabotage it. The haters don’t like it, but the fact remains: America and Israel are good together, and together they are good for the world.
