Changing of the guard: A mercurial president and rankling ambassador - opinion

With apologies to Charles Dickens, it was the best of times and it was the worst of times in two cities this week.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Jerusalem rejoicing at the election of Donald Trump with unabashed enthusiasm, while American Jewish leaders considered him too divisive and unpopular to invite to their annual convention in Washington this week.

Netanyahu celebrated after ridding himself of his meddlesome minister of defense, Yoav Gallant, who kept trying to end the Israel-Hamas War and accused the PM of sacrificing the hostages for his own personal political interests, namely reoccupation of Gaza and building settlements there. Gallant was replaced by Israel Katz, a yes-man who knows better than to try to put the national interest above that of the PM.

Netanyahu’s next move is sure to rankle American Jewry and the Democrats: He named Yechiel Leiter to be Israel’s next ambassador to the United States. Leiter, whose son was an IDF officer killed fighting in Gaza last year, is a longtime leader of the settler movement, an outspoken foe of Palestinian statehood and an advocate of annexing the West Bank – all policies opposed by most American Jews and Democrats, the party which lost big in last week’s election but still had the support of three out of four Jewish voters.

The American-born (Scranton, PA, like Joe Biden) ambassador-to-be, aged 65, is a former follower of the late Meir Kahane’s Jewish Defense League, which the FBI described in congressional testimony as “a known violent extremist Jewish organization.” JDL was reportedly involved in plotting and executing acts of terrorism within the United States.

Leiter replaces centrist Ambassador Michael Herzog, a retired IDF general and military scholar whose brother is the current president of Israel. He is expected to assume his new post after Trump takes office on January 20. Whatever the turnout that day for the inauguration, you can expect Trump to declare it the largest in American history.

Israel rally in DC falls short

THAT CAN’T be said about the crowd on Sunday’s rally that gathered at Nationals Park, a baseball stadium in DC, to demonstrate support for Israel, to demand release of the hostages, and to combat antisemitism. Sponsors – the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) and the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations – expected 30,000 or more to mark 400 days since the Hamas pogrom, but fewer than a tenth of that number showed up, according to media reports.

“Where are all the Jews at?” asked emcee and comedian Tiffany Haddish. No one expected it to match last year’s march on the mall in front of the Capitol, which drew some 300,000 supporters of Israel. But the shrinkage was a shock.

The event was to kick off the JFNA annual General Assembly of leaders of Jewish communities across the country. What distinguished the conference was not who was there but who wasn’t.

Prime Minister Netanyahu was not invited – not because he was too busy but because he was too divisive. Organizers feared his presence would spark large and potentially violent anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian demonstrations and a boycott by many Jewish activists.

A JFNA poll in April showed most American Jews love Israel but not its prime minister. Nearly two out of three (63%) said they were unhappy with him and his extremist government, while 32% held a favorable view of him. There is widespread opposition beyond the Jewish community as well to the current government, which is the most extreme in Israel’s history, notably for its anti-democratic scheme to end Israel’s independent judiciary and its conduct during the Gaza war.

In addition to having to sell policies like that, ambassador-designate Leiter will be Netanyahu’s point man in his campaign to win Trump’s blessing for unilateral annexation of the West Bank and to prevent Palestinian statehood.

SETTLEMENT EXPANSION and annexation are top priorities of the prime minister and Trump’s $100-million campaign donor, Miriam Adelson. An Israeli-American dual citizen who lives primarily in Israel, she has also been a major contributor to Netanyahu’s political career.

Leiter will be expected to help her collect on her investment. She reportedly got a commitment from Trump that when the time came, he would recognize the legitimacy of Israeli annexation in the West Bank as he did in the Golan Heights during his first term.

Her late husband, casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, was among the largest contributors to Trump in 2016 and 2020 and is credited with getting him to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and recognize the city as Israel’s capital.

An ordained rabbi, scholar and former top aide to Netanyahu, Leiter enjoys close ties with both Orthodox Jews and the Republican Party. His greatest challenge will be to connect to a wider Jewish community that overwhelmingly opposed Trump, votes Democrat and doesn’t care much for Netanyahu. Democrats are strongly pro-Israel, but increasingly support Palestinian statehood and are critical of the humanitarian crisis this war has created in Gaza.

Bibi moved quickly to congratulate Trump, and they spoke at least three times before week’s end. You can bet the Israeli leader assured the next leader of the free world that he’s been loyal all these years and never liked old man Biden anyway. The PM, who once told an interviewer, “I speak Republican,” has reportedly said he thinks the Jews and Democrats are of secondary importance because he has the backing of the far more numerous and less argumentative Evangelicals.

In recent months, the two leaders patched over their differences. They have a lot in common, including criminal indictments and a desire to stay in power in order to stay out of prison. Netanyahu knows what it will mean if he fails to keep on the good side of the mercurial Trump, and he’ll do what it takes to stay there.

One leader of a large Jewish community told me that’s why he is worried that “the Bibi-Donald bromance” will drive even more Jews away from Israel.

The writer is a Washington-based journalist, consultant, lobbyist, and a former legislative director at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.