How are Israelis viewing Trump's defeat in the midterms?

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After the defeat of the Republican Party in America's midterm elections, there is a debate in Israel as to how bad this result is for them.

Those people who openly criticized Israel's policies have also won in this election.

Abdul Al-Sayed defeated Mike Rogers in the election for the US Senate seat in Michigan.

Israel's leading English newspaper Haaretz wrote on Abdul's victory, "This result also shows that even expressing strong opposition against Israel does not become an obstacle to winning a competitive federal election.

Haaretz wrote in its report, "Al-Sayed achieved this victory at a time when the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) had spent more than $30 million to defeat him in the Democratic Party's primary election. Apart from this, there were reports of about $9 million being spent in support of Rogers in the general election.

Al-Sayed used this expenditure in his favor against AIPAC. He presented the organization's opposition against him as proof that he was on the right side of history.

Haaretz wrote, "Tuesday's election results exposed the limits of the political power of the organized Jewish community."

"El-Sayed attended Jewish community events and met with its leaders, but he largely refused to change his rhetoric or policy stances to win over pro-Israel voters."

"A survey of early-voting Jewish voters released by The Jewish Majority, a pro-Israel organization, found that 60 percent of voters had voted for El-Sayed."

How are the Israelis watching?

Chief Political Analyst Amig Segal of Israeli broadcaster N12 News has written that the cycle of bad news for Israel is not stopping.

He wrote on Twitter, "The series of bad news continues. What happened in America last night is a major disaster. Imagine AIPAC's worst fear and double it, and that still doesn't convey the gravity of the situation.

The only saving grace is that Abdul Al-Sayed won the Senate seat by a smaller margin than expected. Will Democrats understand that anti-Israel politics and anti-Semitism cost them votes? I don't think so. And yet a large number of Jews voted for him.

The situation is getting worse. First the Democrats held Israel responsible for America's problems. These include rising grocery prices, America's declining credibility at the international level and the war with Iran.

Now, after JD Vance's tweet and Donald Trump Jr.'s sharing of it, Republicans are also blaming Israel for their party's troubles. Vance's message was that America had moved too close to Israel.

This is much more dangerous. Israel now faces its biggest challenge in Washington since at least 1975. At that time, President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had banned arms deals to put pressure on Israel. This is known as 'reassessment' i.e. review of America's Israel policy.

I see only one solution to this situation - the formation of a government of national unity in Israel. It would be a huge mistake to gamble with the possibility of new elections, to form a minority government with the support of Arab parties, or to compromise with parties from the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.

Questions on Netanyahu's policy

The leading American newspaper New York Times has written in its report that these results also highlighted that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's reliance on his long-standing friendship with President Donald Trump also has its limits.

The NYT wrote, "The Democrats' major victory against the Republican Party and the growing criticism of Israel from some members of the House of Representatives and the Senate ahead of the election have deepened Israel's growing sense of isolation internationally after years of war. These results come at a sensitive time for Israel, when it is grappling with its inconclusive election results and facing the possibility of another conflict with Iran.

“Now its future relations with America are also at stake. America is Israel's most important ally. Along with this, American military aid worth billions of dollars received every year is also at stake. This is an indication of how much traditional support for Israel has declined in both the Democratic and Republican parties. Netanyahu's critics and political rivals presented these election results as evidence of his failure to manage Israel's national security interests.

"The results we are seeing today are precisely why Israel has always tried to maintain a bipartisan policy toward the United States," Jeremy Issacharoff, Israel's former ambassador to Germany, told the NYT.

During his long diplomatic career, Issacharoff worked on many aspects of Israel's strategic relationship with the United States. During this period, he was posted twice in the Israeli Embassy in Washington.

According to Issacharoff, conservative leader Netanyahu had largely abandoned this policy about a decade ago. He said Netanyahu became "the Israeli prime minister most dependent on the US president."

On the day of the US election, Trump shocked the United States by announcing that he would end US aid to Israel amounting to about $4 billion each year "at the end of this year". However, the existing military aid agreement between the US and Israel is to expire in 2028.

In an interview given to Fox News, Trump said that this step is being taken for political reasons. His aim was to snatch a negative issue from the hands of the left wing of the Democratic Party. US aid to Israel became a controversial issue during the midterm elections.

Has anti-Israel sentiment strengthened in America?

Tzipi Livni, a former minister in the Netanyahu-led government, wrote in a post on social media, "Netanyahu made a bet on the Republican Party, breaking the alliance we have maintained with both parties for years. Now he has no way to prove the legitimacy that Israel as a nation of the Jewish people has the right to exist and that we have the right to defend ourselves."

Livni made this comment in the context of some vocal critics of Israel winning the elections. The website of Israel's news channel 'Channel 14' did not pay much attention to the US midterm elections on Wednesday. This channel is widely considered a supporter of Prime Minister Netanyahu.

However, the website gave prominence to a post made by the White House on social media after the election results. In it, along with a picture of President Donald Trump, it was written, "Trump is still your President."

For a long time, Israel had the support of both the Democratic and Republican parties in America. Israel considered it one of its major strategic strengths.

But with changes in American public opinion, political support for Israel has weakened in both parties. Especially regarding the ongoing war in Gaza. This war started after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Michael Oren, Israel's former ambassador to the United States, said, "Right now the only issue on which both parties agree is criticism of Israel."

"This has become a unifying basis for the Democratic Party and is now becoming a unifying basis for large parts of the Republican Party as well," he told US broadcaster CNN.

Oren said the end of US aid is just the beginning of a process whose effects are now beginning to become apparent.

He said that there is a possibility that America may stop sharing intelligence information with Israel. Apart from this, joint development of important military systems like Iron Dome may also be banned. Iron Dome is Israel's famous air defense system.

He also mentioned the UN Security Council, where presidents from both the Republican and Democratic parties have used the US veto to protect Israel.

He said, "We have reached the end of an era."

Yaakov Katz, former editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post, warned that more changes were still to come.

He wrote on the social media platform

CNN has written in one of its reports, "Anti-Israel sentiment in America strengthened further during the war with Iran." A section of American voters believed that the joint attacks by America and Israel were a war in which Netanyahu had persuaded Trump to join.

“Netanyahu is still advocating resumption of attacks on Iran. If this happens, the war that had caused gas prices and cost of living to rise may flare up again. These issues also contributed to the Republican Party's poor performance in the midterm elections.