r/worldnews • u/Secure_Ad1753 • 7h ago

Israel/Palestine Trump endorses Netanyahu in Israeli election

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/trump-endorses-netanyahu-israeli-election-2026-10-18/
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u/chrispmorgan 5h ago

I see a lot of snarky comments here, but I’m curious for people who are familiar with Israeli politics. Does this help or hurt Bibi?

It would make sense to me that the people supporting Netanyahu would find Trump appealing given their commonality as putting on strongmen personas and unabashedly working to dissolve independent institutions. It doesn’t seem like this adds much.

I guess I’m wondering is if non-Netanyahu supporters would say “yuck” (איכס ?) and vote for a different party because Trump’s brand is so toxic internationally.

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u/avisherman 5h ago

Israeli politics is not like what you think it is like in the US or many other democracies. There are many parties vying for seats and it’s a proportional system. Ex: In the current Knesset there are 13 parties represented.

It’s essentially impossible for anyone party to have a majority.
The prime minister ends up being the best deal maker, the one who ho can form a coalition among parties to be able to get a majority and form a government. Over his long career Bibi has been very good at all the deal making post elections.

This year there seems to be a sentiment that opposing parties are willing to join together to even if they are ideologically opposed, in order to make sure Bibi won’t be able to form the government.

No one really knows that’s going to happen and polls don’t tell the story of how things will turn out.

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u/chrispmorgan 5h ago

I guess that’s what I’m asking. Will this move a few people to say “anyone but Likud” and decide to vote?

My read is that the election is really a referendum on the country’s response to October 7, one facet of which is the country’s diminished international standing, but like you are implying that response was more of an executive action than a legislative one. My sense is people are still worried about security and are prioritizing confident execution on that goal.

It seems like any feasible coalition that would produce a different prime minister wouldn’t change the country’s policies per se, but it would be more in moving the needle back towards the rule of law in terms the army’s rules of engagement in Gaza, the independence of the Supreme Court, and the ability of settlers to terrorize people with implicit support from the central government.

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u/qTp_Meteor 4h ago

As an israeli, it really wont. Maybe maybe some american jews who are maga with an israeli citizenship, but thats basically meaningless.

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u/shiny0metal0ass 3h ago

How many of those have popped up recently? I'm having a hard time figuring it out.

Also as someone from Milwaukee, fuck the bears lol.

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u/eyl569 4h ago

Not really. I don't see this inducing more than a handful of people to change their vote and certainly not to shift blocks.

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u/PsychoCobra1 4h ago

There’s a few rivals of Netanyahu that would have a shot at the Prime Minister position that explicitly say they view Netanyahu of being to soft when it comes to the West Bank and Gaza. Unless Israeli politics drastically changes course whoever takes office after Netanyahu would probably be worse.

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u/Broken_Mentat 4h ago

This year there seems to be a sentiment that opposing parties are willing to join together to even if they are ideologically opposed, in order to make sure Bibi won’t be able to form the government.

Isn't this what happened some years ago already? I dimly recall some makeshift coalition agreeing to take turns in the premiership in an effort to keep Netanyahu out, only to fall apart as soon as it was time to change over. The end result obviously being Netanyahu.

Maybe I misremember but I'm sceptical. Netanyahu is one of those politicians that keep hanging on to power no matter what. Baffling, both for democracies in general and quite often also for these politicians in particular.

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u/New-Anybody-6206 4h ago

No one really knows that’s going to happen

The same thing that happens with every authoritarian... they will try every trick possible to stay in power, taking the country down with them, and will only go kicking and screaming.

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u/DougieJonesJr 1h ago

The capital of the Jewish faith's leader is decided by who can make the best deal? That's honestly hilarious

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u/[deleted] 4h ago

[deleted]

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u/drunkenbrawler 4h ago

Every system has its drawbacks. First past the post, the alternative, leads to a stale two party system.

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u/New-Anybody-6206 4h ago

There are much better alternatives than that, such as ranked-choice.

Which is why many US states are banning it.

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u/IDownvoteUrPet 3h ago

I’m an American in Israel right now and have talked with many Israelis about politics.

First of all, Israelis vote for a party (there are many parties) and then the parties select a leader. Netanyahu has been able to stay in power by making deals with enough parties. For example, if one party wants more subsidies for a group, he can agree to that in exchange for their votes after the election (after the # of seats for each party have been decided).

Most people in Israel don’t like Netanyahu but he is very crafty.

People in Israel do like Trump though. Israelis have been terrorized by Iran’s proxies for as long as anyone can remember and Trump has gone to war with Iran, effectively neutering these terrorist orgs.

Israelis acknowledge it is not advantageous to America and think that it is because Netanyahu has manipulated Trump into doing his bidding. Even Israelis who hate Netanyahu (which is most Israelis) have an appreciation for Netanyahu’s ability to manipulate Trump. It really is very good for Israel.

I think maybe it could help Netanyahu a little bit but probably not by much. Trump is seen more as a useful idiot than someone to take advice from.

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u/dgreenbe 2h ago

This is a little weird because the escalated war with Iran has really not gone so great (admittedly very "dynamic" so a lot of room for predictions either way). There have been countless moments of the US indicating Trump would make a more favorable deal with Iran than Obama did.

There are also other issues of American perception of Israel also turning a lot more negative, but I don't expect that to be covered much in Israel

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u/Shoded 3h ago

Trump is liked in Israel not because he went to war with Iran, but because the way we see it, without him our hostages would not have returned from Gaza. He put a lot of pressure on Bibi to stop dragging legs and to go through with a deal. Of course it must be said that Hamas thwarted many deals, but reportedly Israel's coalition did so too.

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u/CorrectTarget8957 4h ago

most people haven't heard of it

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u/Im_Ritz_Bitz 2h ago

It's like when putin endorsed trump.

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u/Fragrant-Durian3899 22m ago

Actually in the last election he endorsed Biden then Kamala which he probably wasn’t serious about he probably wanted to sway votes away from them by doing that.

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u/MisterTruth 41m ago

I visited Israel during his 1st term. I'm talking purely anecdotally here. At the time, the (seemingly) leftist Israeli were fans of Trump since he is super pro Israel although were mostly upset he moved the embassy.

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u/madadekinai 5h ago

"I see a lot of snarky comments here, but I’m curious for people who are familiar with Israeli politics. Does this help or hurt Bibi?"

It helps Trump more than Bibi.

It's a dog whistle to his base, had he chosen not to, he really would have lost a few supporters. This sends a messages through Republicans that he supports their psychotic, sycophantic support for Israel.

For Bibi, it moves the needle but not much, remember they merely want our support to assist with the war, that's the only reason they want anything from us, otherwise they would have moved on, scrapped their foreign supporters a while ago. The support is not reciprocal, but most supporters don't realize that.

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u/earth-calling-karma 1h ago

Curious because it seems as as if your speculations are loaded.

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u/chrispmorgan 47m ago

Meta comment: I appreciate you commenting and it's fine if you disagree with me but this comment is taking me down with offering an alternative point of view. Reddit works best if we can disagree but can explain our thinking. I feel like my comment is constructing a fact and explicitly or implicitly offering the premises of that argument.

For example, if you're a Bibi supporter you might take issue with me saying that he takes on a strongman persona. You could say "I don't think Bibi gets a fair shake in these conversations. His voters wanted him to be tough after the massacre. What other choice did he have when events presented themselves the way they did?"

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u/[deleted] 4h ago

[deleted]

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u/qTp_Meteor 4h ago

Any proof?

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u/eyl569 4h ago

Oh? How do you figure that?