\n<\/p>\n
Before President Barack Obama was sworn into office in 2009, Benjamin Netanyahu called the Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas out of the blue and asked for a lesson in what was essentially a foreign tongue: the language of Democrats.<\/p>\n
\u201cI speak Republican and you speak Democratic, and I need the intermediary,\u201d said Mr. Netanyahu, who was about to become prime minister of Israel, according to Mr. Pinkas. He added: \u201cNetanyahu always thought of himself as some pedigree neocon that belongs in the right wing of the Republican Party.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Netanyahu, who is meeting with President Trump<\/a> at the White House on Monday, is once again conversing with his preferred party, and the difference has been stark.<\/p>\n Where former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had sought to put some restrictions on Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s military campaign in Gaza, the Trump administration has made no such demand. Where Mr. Biden criticized Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s attempted overhaul of Israel\u2019s courts, Mr. Trump has made attacks of his own against American judges.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThey are unshackled,\u201d said Natan Sachs, the director of the Center for Middle East Policy and a senior fellow in the foreign policy program at the Brookings Institution. \u201cA lot of concerns that the previous White House kept making about humanitarian aid, about limiting civilian casualties, these concerns are just not voiced anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n Looming over the meeting this week is a point of tension: Mr. Trump\u2019s sweeping tariffs, which did not spare Israel. Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s office said the two men plan to discuss the tariff issue, the war in Gaza, Israel-Turkey relations, Iran and the International Criminal Court.<\/p>\n \u201cI can tell you that I am the first international leader, the first foreign leader, who will meet with President Trump on the issue, which is so important to the Israeli economy,\u201d Mr. Netanyahu said of the tariffs. \u201cThere is a long line of leaders who want this regarding their economies. I think that it reflects the special personal link, as well as the special ties between the U.S. and Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n All recent American administrations have allied themselves, to varying degrees, with Israel, although Mr. Biden and Mr. Netanyahu had a long and complicated history. Mr. Biden referred to the Israeli leader as a \u201cclose, personal friend of over 33 years<\/a>,\u201d and Mr. Netanyahu referred to Mr. Biden as an \u201cIrish American Zionist.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Biden also grew frustrated with Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s conduct in office, criticizing his overhaul of Israel\u2019s judiciary. And the American president used profanities<\/a> over how Israel carried out the war in Gaza in response to the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cYou know the perception of Israel around the world increasingly is that you\u2019re a rogue state, a rogue actor,\u201d Mr. Biden told Mr. Netanyahu, after an airstrike in Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n There was a different reaction when Israel consulted the White House recently about aerial attacks across the Gaza Strip. The response from the Trump administration? Give \u2019em hell.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Trump administration and the White House were consulted by the Israelis on their attacks in Gaza,\u201d Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said on Fox News, adding: \u201cAll those who seek to terrorize, not just Israel, but also the United States of America, will see a price to pay. All hell will break loose.\u201d<\/p>\n The Israeli airstrikes ended a temporary cease-fire with Hamas that began in January and raised the prospect of a return to all-out war. More than 400 people, including children, were killed in the first hours of the strikes, Gaza\u2019s health ministry said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Trump have also found common cause in their criticism of their countries\u2019 judges. Mr. Trump has railed against judges who have blocked some of his administration\u2019s actions, including his invoking of wartime powers to speed up deportations. He has called for one judge in particular to be impeached<\/a>, as Mr. Netanyahu cheered him on.<\/p>\n \u201cIn America and in Israel, when a strong right wing leader wins an election, the leftist Deep State weaponizes the justice system to thwart the people\u2019s will,\u201d Mr. Netanyahu wrote on social media. \u201cThey won\u2019t win in either place! We stand strong together.\u201d<\/p>\n Elliott Abrams, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said there was simply \u201cmuch more trust on the part of the Israelis in the Trump administration.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe vice president, the secretary of state, secretary of defense, national security adviser, they\u2019re all viewed as very pro-Israel,\u201d said Mr. Abrams, who worked in foreign policy positions for three Republican presidents, including Mr. Trump. \u201cAnd that was not true of the Biden administration, which was viewed as sympathetic, but leaning toward restraining Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n To be sure, Mr. Trump and Mr. Netanyahu have had their ups and downs.<\/p>\n In Mr. Trump\u2019s first term, Mr. Netanyahu angered Mr. Trump with the rather innocuous act of congratulating his successor, Mr. Biden, after the presidential election in 2020.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But in Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s view, the first Trump presidency was a boon for Israel. The American president moved the United States Embassy to Jerusalem and paid little attention to the Palestinians while siding with Israel on its claims over Palestinian territory in the West Bank.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Then, soon after retaking office, Mr. Trump proposed that the United States should seize control of Gaza<\/a> and permanently displace the entire Palestinian population of the devastated seaside enclave, one of the most brazen ideas that any American leader has advanced about the region. He has since made some distance from that proposal<\/a>.<\/p>\n But his musing about the mass removal of the Palestinians came during a meeting with Mr. Netanyahu, who smiled throughout Mr. Trump\u2019s remarks and later heaped praise on him.<\/p>\n \u201cYou cut to the chase,\u201d Mr. Netanyahu told Mr. Trump. \u201cYou see things others refuse to see. You say things others refuse to say, and after the jaws dropped, people scratch their heads and they say, \u2018You know, he\u2019s right.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Many condemned Mr. Trump\u2019s suggestion as immoral and illegal. But polls showed right-wing Israelis who make up Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s base widely supported the idea, and the American president has been popular in Israel.<\/p>\n The fact that Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s base backs Mr. Trump gives him unique power in the country as Israel and Hamas negotiate the release of hostages and a cease-fire, Mr. Sachs said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey fear Trump more, and they do think he\u2019s unpredictable,\u201d Mr. Sachs said. \u201cThe direct talks with Hamas, this was done without Israeli knowledge. It\u2019s something that a more iconoclastic president like Trump is willing to do, and Israel is loath to cross him. He has a better chance to more forcefully get whatever direction he wants.\u201d<\/p>\n Steven Witkoff, Mr. Trump\u2019s Middle East envoy, has been in negotiations about seeking a new cease-fire agreement. Mr. Netanyahu has selected Ron Dermer, a former Republican activist with close ties to Mr. Trump, to participate in cease-fire talks.<\/p>\n Mr. Witkoff sent a clear message to Hamas before the airstrikes began: \u201cPresident Trump has made it clear that Hamas will either release hostages immediately, or pay a severe price.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But as the war once again ramps up with Mr. Trump\u2019s blessing, the Trump administration will also begin to assume ownership of the war, said Ned Lazarus, an associate professor of international affairs at George Washington University\u2019s Elliott School.<\/p>\n \u201cNetanyahu has had conflict with every one of the multiple U.S. presidents, but he is obviously on much friendlier terms with Trump. He listens to what Trump says,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a renewal of the war. This is Trump\u2019s war.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n