Netanyahu remains lone rider on paper-tiger Trump after betrayal of Syria Kurds

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “reckless gamble” on the Trump administration came to light after the US president shockingly betrayed America’s loyal Kurdish allies in Syria, but the premier is left with no other choice but to keep riding the “paper tiger” to cover up his “abysmal” policy failure, an Israeli daily writes.

“Netanyahu bet the house on Trump, lauded him as Israel’s lord and savior and even used him as a central prop in two election campaigns this year,” only to “recognize the enormity of his strategic failure” later, wrote Haaretz in an analysis piece on Thursday.

The prime minister had long worked to persuade the Israelis into considering US President Donald Trump as a “stable genius” who supports Israel to the hilt, and that the blows he has dealt to ties with Washington’s other allies has nothing to do with Israel.

“Trump’s decision to stick a knife in the back of the Kurds dispelled the illusion. It painted Netanyahu’s policy as a reckless gamble that could render Israel alone to fend for itself,” the paper wrote.

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Political commentator Jason Unruhe says the US green light to Turkey to launch a military operation in northern Syria indicates that Washington is withdrawing its support for Kurdish militants. 

“Netanyahu’s ability to extract symbolic gestures from Trump, such as recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the [occupied] Golan Heights and the transfer of the US embassy to Jerusalem (al-Quds), blinded him to the wider negative impact of Trump’s Middle East approach,” the paper wrote.

The Israeli paper highlighted that Trump’s recently heightened-up calls to “abandon the Middle East” as a whole had greatly tainted the image Netanyahu had sought to portray of his relations with Washington to the Israeli public.

“Even when Trump is being viewed by both allies and enemies of Israel as a paper tiger, Netanyahu has no choice but to continue riding it, because, as the original Chinese saying goes, the alternative of getting off is far more daunting. It would mean confessing to his own abysmal failure,” it added.

In the case of future elections in Israel, “it is unlikely that Netanyahu and his Likud Party will put up the same gigantic posters that featured a smiling Trump as Netanyahu’s best friend forever,” the daily wrote.

The analysis piece further highlighted the scandals Trump is now facing at home before the US 2020 elections, adding that the American president may care even less about the fate of Tel Aviv.

Trump “is like a cornered animal, striking out blindly against his hunters. He may decide that continuing to support Israel at every turn works in his favor, but he could very well reach the opposite conclusion and abandon Israel to its fate,” it wrote.

Netanyahu “has no idea which way the president will eventually turn,” it said.

The article concluded with a grave prediction for the prospects of Netanyahu’s political fate after the Israeli premier failed to reach a unity government following an indecisive election last month.

“If Israel goes to the polls again, Netanyahu may find that his citizens prefer normalcy without him to Trump-style lunacy with him continuing at the helm,” the paper wrote. 

Israel ‘deeply worried’

The article was one of at least three articles published by the newspaper in the past day alone, all similarly slamming Netanyahu’s foreign policy and highlighting its failure under Trump.

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The leaders of the anti-Iran line were each entangled in his own crisis this week, the daily says.

Israeli concern over the breakdown of Netanyahu’s Trump-centered foreign policy was also echoed by other Israeli outlets in recent days.

“Trump abandons allies without blinking and Israel is liable to be next,” wrote a commentary in the Israel’s biggest-selling Hebrew daily Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.  

“Trump’s new actions, inactions on Kurds, Syria, Iran have Israel deeply worried,” wrote another article in the Times of Israel.

On Friday, The Washington Post published an article explaining that "Israeli media have been dominated by critics from all parts of Israel’s fractious political spectrum worried that American dependability is cracking at a volatile moment in the region."

The article added that Trump’s emerging disinterest in the Middle East had “rattled Israel’s national security experts,” who viewed "Trump’s action as a betrayal of loyal allies and evidence that Israel’s most vital supporter is a fickle friend at best."

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