Trump Is Celebrating Netanyahu's Win As If It Were His Own

_cnn.com


President Donald Trump is celebrating Benjamin Netanyahu's Israeli election victory like it's his own -- and in many ways, it is.

Trump and his foreign policy team orchestrated one of the most undisguised US interventions in an election abroad of recent times, helping to win the Israeli Prime Minister a fifth term.


Now he's claimig some of the spoils.
"Trump flags being waived at the Bibi @Netanyahu VICTORY celebration last night!" Trump tweeted before calling his friend to congratulate him on Wednesday.


Netanyahu's main opponent, Benny Gantz, leader of the Blue and White Party, conceded the election on Wednesday. Barring any stunning results in the remaining votes to be counted, the veteran Prime Minister will begin the task of building a new governing coalition next week.


Trump didn't wait for the formalities, saying on Wednesday morning that Netanyahu, leader of the Likud Party, was a "great ally" and a "friend" and that he heard the Prime Minister "won it in good fashion."


The bond between the President and the Prime Minister -- two instinctive, predatory politicians -- has clear benefits for them both. While Trump is spontaneous and impulsive, his embrace of Netanyahu shows the savvy that he brings to his own electoral positioning; Netanyahu's embrace of Trump is strategic and calculated.


Netanyahu hugged Trump close during a tight election campaign, which featured huge posters on buildings of both men in downtown Tel Aviv.
Netanyahu argued that his experience and being in lockstep with Trump fulfilled the wish list of his right-wing coalition and ultimately made Israel more safe.

?Those steps included the US relocation of its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem last year, and Trump's recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which it had seized from Syria in the Six-Day War in 1967. The latter came in the weeks before the election. With no pressing need for the recognition, it came across as a blatant political gift to Netanyahu -- one of many in the closing days of the campaign.


In many ways, the leaders, each prone to tough talk, reviling Iran and a willingness to embrace near demagogic campaign tactics and to infringe on campaign taboos over race, are political soulmates.


It doesn't hurt that both harbor deep disdain for Trump's predecessor President Barack Obama, who pressured Netanyahu on the Palestinian issue and made a nuclear deal with Iran.

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