US President Donald Trump has declined to throw his weight behind Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of Israel's October 27 election, marking a notable shift in a relationship that has helped define US-Israel ties for years.
The vote pits Netanyahu's Likud party and the far-right coalition it leads against Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot, who is seeking to build an opposition bloc. In a recent Time magazine interview, Trump three times dodged a direct endorsement of Netanyahu, even as he defended the prime minister's leadership before the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel. Asked about Eisenkot, Trump said: "I don't hear bad things."
Yousef Munayyer, head of the Palestine/Israel programme at the Arab Center Washington DC, said the public ambivalence was surprising given the pair's history. "He seems to be keeping greater distance from it than you would think," he told Al Jazeera, citing Trump's past endorsements of right-wing allies and how close the two leaders have been.
Trump's actions toward Israel have often surpassed his words. During his first term from 2017 to 2021, he moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, recognised Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights, withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and championed normalisation agreements between Israel and Arab states. Since beginning his second term in January 2025, he has continued to surge military aid to Israel.
Munayyer attributed the distance to shifting political winds in both the US and Israel, as well as an evolving Trump-Netanyahu relationship. Netanyahu has long presented himself as the best steward of Israel's most significant foreign relationship, weathering public criticisms from Trump that have yielded little concrete policy change.