+ Reading list analysis Diplomatic Ties Trump’s announcement to lift US sanctions on Syria is the latest in a series of disappointments Israel has had to deal with in its relationship with the US. Israel’s jubilation over Trump’s second term has turned to concern.
AuthorsLucia AdmiralHugo Schiffers from Jerusalem / Amsterdam Published on May 16, 2025
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View the subscriptions Lifted sanctions on Syria. A deal with the Houthis in Yemen. Talks with Iran. Direct negotiations with Hamas. And this week a visit to the Gulf States in the Middle East, without touching Israel.
Israel has recently had to watch as US President Donald Trump, starting his second term, repeatedly bypasses Israel and negotiates with its enemies on his own.
Is Israel being sidelined by Trump? That question has been raised in various Israeli media outlets. “The message to the region was clear: Israel is no longer a top US priority,” journalist Itamar Eichner wrote last week on the Israeli news website Ynet , following Israel’s discovery that the US had made a deal with the Houthis behind its back.
High expectations Around the start of Trump's second term last January, the Israeli right was still in a jubilant mood. "A powerful reaffirmation of the great alliance between Israel and America," said Prime Minister Netanyahu. Billboards in Tel Aviv congratulated Trump on his victory, with the words " Make Israel Great ."
The expectation was that Israel would be even less obstructed in the destruction of Gaza under Trump than under Biden, and that it would be given the green light for further annexation of the occupied West Bank. There was also the Israeli desire for a 'normalization agreement' between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which seemed imminent before October 7, 2023.
Those high Israeli expectations stem from Trump’s first term, when he recognized both Israel’s annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights and its claim to Jerusalem as its capital, in violation of international law, and the accompanying relocation of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv. Trump also dismantled U.S. aid to the Palestinians, and the Palestinians were further isolated internationally by the Abraham Accords between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, and Morocco in 2020.
But Trump's America first maxim - maximizing American interests and an isolationist foreign policy - has in recent months been at odds with Israel's regional warfare and hopes for joint action by the two allies.
Sanctions Syria Not in Tel Aviv but in Damascus this week the head of the American president was on a large billboard . When Trump announced this week that he would suspend American sanctions against Syria, tens of thousands of Syrians took to the streets to celebrate.
The change of course in US Syria policy under Trump stands in sharp contrast to the hard line Israel has taken against the new Syrian rulers, who are presented by the Israeli government as a threat.
Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December, Israel has carried out 815 artillery and air strikes on Syrian territory, according to calculations by American Syria expert Charles Lister. In addition, the Israeli army has carried out 148 ground operations in Syria since the beginning of this year. Israel also announced that it would occupy hundreds of square kilometers of occupied Syrian territory indefinitely. Moreover, Israel lobbied Washington earlier this year to keep Syria weak and divided, reports news agency Reuters .
A screen in Damascus thanking the US and Saudi Arabia. Photo Louai Beshara/AFP
Visit Gulf States But Trump is pursuing other interests in Syria. Trump’s visit this week to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, respectively, shows that Trump is prioritising promises of hundreds of billions in investments from the Gulf States and arms deals.
Unlike Israel, these countries want peace and stability in the region. They are investing hundreds of billions in new sectors to decouple their economies from oil. Further unrest in Syria and instability in the region would only jeopardize those investments.
Trump is also not following Israel's desired course with regard to Iran. In recent months, Israeli leaders have hoped for American help in bombing Iranian nuclear facilities, but Trump has rejected that request.Netanyahu was told that Trump had decided to first negotiate with Iran about possibly limiting Iran's nuclear program.
Salt in the wound for the Israeli prime minister was that Trump used the joint press conference after the conversation on April 7 to make the news public. Netanyahu sat next to Trump in the Oval Office and listened quietly. This Thursday, Trump announced that he believes an agreement with Iran is close.
America First Trump’s tendency is not new. He has never been a fan of expensive overseas military entanglements. During his first term, he did his best to withdraw American troops from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. In a speech this week in Saudi Arabia, Trump criticized his predecessors’ military intervention in the region. Countries should “build cities together, not bomb each other to pieces,” Trump said.
Although the Trump administration approved an air campaign against the Houthis in March, a US deal with the Yemeni militant group suddenly followed last week. It is estimated that the first month of the military operation against the Houthis alone had cost the Americans a billion dollars.
That agreement with the Houthis also disappointed the Israelis. The fact that the Houthis are still sending missiles and drones into Israel does not seem to be an obstacle for Trump to wash his hands of Yemen for the time being.
On one point, Netanyahu can be pleased. The tensions between Trump and Netanyahu's regional interests will not change much in Gaza for the time being. During Trump's visit to the Middle East this week, Israel continued its airstrikes on Gaza in full force. Netanyahu announced last week the expansion of the attacks on Gaza, while Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that Gaza would be completely destroyed within months. Israel will continue to receive billions in US military aid under Trump - as it did under his predecessor Biden, although he symbolically halted a shipment of bombs to Gaza.
Moreover, Israel feels supported by Trump’s statements to turn Gaza into a big American real estate project after ethnic cleansing of the area. The Palestinian population should be expelled to Arab countries. In Qatar, Trump said again last Thursday that he would be “proud if the United States owns [Gaza], takes it over, makes it a freedom zone, and makes good things happen.” Arab countries such as Egypt, Qatar and the UAE have spoken out against Trump’s statements about Gaza.
Gaza File So while Trump is unlikely to do much to stop Israel from continuing its campaign of destruction in Gaza, he is also the one who could tip the balance in a renewed ceasefire, as was the case last January. That ceasefire was unilaterally broken by Israel. The US-Hamas negotiated release of soldier Eden Alexander this week was intended to give new impetus to negotiations.
Meanwhile, Trump is also playing his part in Israel’s increasing control over Gaza. American companies will be involved in the US-Israeli plan to distribute very limited humanitarian aid in Gaza in militarized zones. The plan, which would completely dismantle the existing aid structure, has been widely criticized by international aid organizations.
