But this presents Bibi with a problem.
For Trump, money speaks louder than anything else, and Gulf leaders will be looking for quid pro quos. Ending the war in Gaza will be high on their list — a war that Bibi, largely for the maintenance of his own rambunctious coalition and to avoid elections, is determined to continue, if not expand.
The Gulf countries have also underlined, time and again, the need for a return to two-state negotiations. Saudi leaders, for instance, have insisted there can be no “normalization” of relations with Israel without clear diplomatic movement in that direction.
Finally — and unlike in 2017 — these leaders want a nuclear deal with Iran, as they crave regional stability. They see an opportunity to establish some calm now that Iran’s proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah, have been sorely damaged and Tehran’s Syrian ally Bashar Assad has fallen. And while the Saudis had launched a war on the Iran-backed Houthis in 2015, this time around, they want the conflict in Yemen to end. Hence, their support for Trump’s deal to stop bombing Houthis in return for their promise to cease targeting U.S. shipping in the Red Sea.
The deal’s announcement blindsided Israel, coming just after a Houthi missile struck near Ben Gurion airport and triggered a flurry of international airlines to suspend flights to Israel. The development only added to Netanyahu’s growing frustrations, as the Israeli leader was recently rebuffed on two fronts during his trip to Washington — he left empty-handed, without an endorsement for an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities or a tariff deal.
Despite publicly gushing over Trump’s reelection, declaring it a “huge victory,” and “history’s greatest comeback,” Netanyahu knew it wouldn’t be a slam dunk to have him back in the Oval Office. As his aides noted last year, Bibi was aware Trump still harbored personal distrust toward him, after the Israeli leader became the first foreign leader to congratulate former President Joe Biden on his election win in 2020 — while Trump was still disputing the results.
