Several officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration were quoted on Sunday as saying that Washington is alarmed by Israel’s recent strikes in Syria, calling Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu (Likud) a “madman” and “a child who just won’t behave.”
“Bibi acted like a madman. He bombs everything all the time,” a Trump official was quoted as saying by Axios.
“This could undermine what Trump is trying to do.”
Israeli forces began strikes on Syrian troops rolling into Sweida last Tuesday, after Syrian forces were accused of massacring scores of people in the Druze city of Sweida.
Axios reported that US Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack contacted Jerusalem on Tuesday and requested halt to the attacks so as to allow room for diplomacy.
According to the report, Israel agreed to Barrack’s request. But Israel’s air force struck key buildings in Damascus, including the Syrian military headquarters near the presidential palace, the next day.
Showing Up for the Druze
Jerusalem has made clear that all Israeli actions in Syria were carried out in support of the Druze population being attacked by the new Syrian state. Over 1,000 Druze civilians were reportedly killed in southern Syria last week. Israel stepped in to stop the massacre.
The Israeli Druze community have been close allies of the Jews for several decades, even serving in the IDF, and had expressed hope that Israel would demonstrate real solidarity by taking military action against those threatening their brothers and sisters across the border.
The Druze also have a tradition that they are the descendants of Yitro/Shuayb, which would make them a modern incarnation of Israel’s ancient Kenite allies from the Biblical period.
While the Druze population in Syrian territory has traditionally been less friendly to Israel, they have more recently gone so far as to express a desire for Israel to conquer and annex the parts of southern Syria where they live.
The shift we’re currently witnessing is actually more significant than most analysts appreciate.
Until recently, Israel’s political leadership has behaved as a small and vulnerable nation-state surrounded by enemies and dependent on the United States for survival. But the multi-front war that began with the horrific Hamas attacks on Simḥat Torah of 2023 appears to have transformed the Israeli mentality in such a way that’s made us more comfortable embracing our own innate natural tribalism, more distrustful of the United States, and more powerful in the Semitic region.
Israeli Tribalism
There are several features of Israel that demonstrate it to be a highly tribal society. But despite the fact that these features would have helped Israel to better fit into the broader region, they have to a certain extent been suppressed by efforts to portray Israel as a liberal Western nation-state.
One clear example of this tension has been attempts to define the term “Israeli” as a civic national identity – citizens of a nation-state called Israel – while the natural impulse of most Israelis is to define that identity as meaning the children of Israel (in the Hebrew language, the word ישראלי״” can actually mean either definition).
Despite being conditioned by Israel’s westernized ruling class for several decades to want to see themselves as part of the West and therefore tone down the features of our identity that we share with our neighbors in the region, many Israelis are slowly beginning to more consciously embrace their own tribalist instincts and loyalties. It’s also become more obvious that these instincts can help us better navigate the fluid geopolitical dynamics of the Semitic region.
Loss of Faith in Uncle Sam
This war has also made clear to much of the Israeli public that the United States isn’t the friend we wanted to believe it was. While it was clear to many at the time (Vision reported on it extensively in real time) that the US was funding the anti-judicial reform protests, it has now been confirmed through the results of an investigation published by the US House of Representatives last Thursday
During the war, the Biden administration made several efforts to limit Israel’s success and worked to undermine Netanyahu in order to oust him from power after the war and advance a plan to partition Israel into two states.
When Donald Trump was elected in November 2024, many Israelis who had developed a new thirst for independence began to experience a regression. This was largely due to a misguided belief that Trump understands and supports Israel far more than his predecessors. But Trump’s no nonsense approach to US imperial interests and unstable behavior since taking office has shown the Israeli people that he can’t be relied upon to have our back.
The final nail in the coffin of Israeli faith in Washington may have come with the open hostility towards Israel being expressed by the American right, including Trump’s MAGA base. This has made clear to many that the US-Israel relationship is coming to an end.
At this point, Jerusalem essentially has two choices; either abandon the “superpower patronage doctrine” that’s guided Israeli foreign policy since 1948 or pivot to the People’s Republic of China by making a bid to join the BRICS nations (if Israel were to choose the latter option, we would of course need to enter the arrangement as a partner rather than as a vassal).
What’s clear is that the US-Israel relationship is coming to an end, and Jerusalem should understand the value of ending it on Israeli terms.
Israel as the Regional Hegemon
Israel’s actions on behalf of the Druze population in southern Syria demonstrated the confidence of a regional power.
After humiliating Iran in war and dismantling its proxy network, piece by piece, Israel has changed the geopolitical map of West Asia.
This thwarts longstanding US efforts to create a balance in the region between nations dependent on Washington. Israel emerging as the regional hegemon is likely precisely what Trump was trying to avoid when he commandeered and subsequently shut down Israel’s war against Iran (which would explain Trump’s foul-mouthed tirade last month when he feared an Israeli airstrike would have threatened his Iran ceasefire).
Saudi Arabia and Turkey, the two main potential rivals to Israel in the region, have complained to Trump about Israel’s strikes on Syria, as did Tom Barrack and US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.
“The bombing in Syria caught the president and the White House by surprise,” a White House official was quoted as saying.
“The president doesn’t like turning on the television and seeing bombs dropped in a country he is seeking peace in and made a monumental announcement to help rebuild.”
On the surface it might seem as if Trump’s frustration stems from his expanded Abraham Accords being threatened and his chances for a Nobel Peace Prize being thwarted. But on a deeper level, Israel’s shifting role from a US vassal to an independent regional hegemon risks a significant reduction in American influence in West Asia.
Calling Netanyahu “a child who just won’t behave” could be Trump’s way of trying to remind the prime minister of Israel’s “proper place” in the region.
