The day after the US election, right-wing factions in Israel clearly felt emboldened. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a leader of the 600,000‑strong West Bank Jewish settler movement, told reporters that Donald Trump’s victory gives Israel the chance to impose sovereignty over that area, where 3 million Palestinians live without citizenship. And the newly installed defense minister, Israel Katz, called for an airstrike on Iran’s nuclear program in a meeting with military leaders: “This is doable—not only on the security front, but also on the diplomatic front.” Billboards sprouted across the country with a picture of Trump in front of US and Israeli flags and the words “Congratulations! Trump, Make Israel Great!”
It’s hardly surprising that a second Trump administration is being hailed in Israel, where polls showed two-thirds of the population supported him. When he was last in office, he moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem, recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights (conquered from Syria in 1967) and forged diplomatic ties between Israel and four Arab states without any gesture toward Palestinian sovereignty. He also said West Bank settlements weren’t violations of international law.