CIJR | Canadian Institute for Jewish Research
L'institut Canadien de Recherches sur le Judaisme

Analysis

How to Tackle a ‘Transactional Trump’

Donald Trump Closeup (Source: Wikipedia)

David M. Weinberg

Israel Hayom, Jan. 20, 2025

“They are not going to qualify Israel’s “right” to defend itself by using the insidious Kamala Harris qualifiers “but” and “only.””

With Donald J. Trump moving this week back into the White House, Israel must carefully calibrate its relationship with the new-old president and his team. Israel has to evaluate what expectations and demands of Trump are realistic, and what price Israel will likely have to pay to meet his priorities.

This is especially true, in light of the hostage-for-terrorist release deal that Trump forced down the throat of Israel (and Hamas).

The hostage deal and imposed ceasefire cannot come as a surprise. For months now, Trump has made it clear that by his inauguration on January 20 he expects quiet on the Gaza front and other Mideast battle lines so that he can focus without interference on his priorities – which are immigration, the economy, and China. And reaching a grand Mideast strategic accord involving Saudi Arabia.

Everything else, Trump has intimated, can wait. This includes finishing-off Hamas and real military confrontation with Iran. This is what Trump’s aides call “sequencing,” an ordered set of priorities where not everything can be tackled all at once and early on. In Hebrew, the relevant idiom is parah parah, meaning that you milk (or slaughter) one cow at a time.

It is not only a question of sequencing. It also is “transactional,” meaning that Trump runs his foreign policy with a business mindset: give and take.

Thus “Transactional Trump” expects Israel to play along with his priorities, and this is especially true regarding a Saudi deal.

Trump intends to cut a tripartite American-Saudi-Israeli accord this year. For a range of reasons, this is one of Trump’s top priorities. It is well within reach, and it mostly jibes with Israel’s preferences. ….SOURCE

Subscribe to the Isranet Daily Briefing

* indicates required

Please select all the ways you would like to hear from the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices.

To top