Our Wednesday News Analysis | Why Trump’s Israel ultimatum is a reassertion of US control

US President Donald Trump waits to greet leaders during a summit on Gaza in Sharm El-Sheikh on Oct. 13, 2025. (AFP)

The annexation “won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries.” He insisted: “Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened.”

Washington ensures that the roadmap to the region’s future, despite occasional disagreements, remains entirely in US-Israeli hands.

Such policies will fail to bring peace or justice and will inevitably reignite the same cycle of Israeli violence. While the bombing has temporarily slowed in Gaza,

Violence is already surging in the West Bank.

Has Donald Trump’s sharp rebuke of Israel in his Time magazine interview last week fundamentally changed the calculus in the Middle East? His comments immediately sparked two opposing views: for some, his position represents the clear demarcation of a genuine shift in US foreign policy; for others, it is nothing more than a political ploy designed to claw back credibility lost by the US during two years of Israeli genocide in Gaza.

Regarding the end of the Gaza genocide, Trump claimed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “had to stop because the world was going to stop him.” He added: “You know, I could see what was happening ... Israel was becoming very unpopular.” With these words, Trump signaled his view that the systematic extermination of Palestinians in Gaza had pushed Israel to an inevitable point of isolation that even the US could no longer indefinitely hold back.

This is the crux of his message, repeated in his stark warning to Netanyahu: “Bibi, you can’t fight the world ... The world’s against you. And Israel is a very small place compared to the world.” This may appear to be an obvious fact, yet considering the history of the US’ — and, by extension, the West’s — blind support, Israel has always felt much larger than its own size. Indeed, Israel’s perceived power has historically been defined by the unconditional backing of the US.

But, according to Trump’s claim, the US no longer perceives itself as the unconditional vanguard for Israel. He points to a new global power dynamic, noting, “there are a lot of powers out there, OK, powers outside of the region,” whose influence has made Washington’s traditional protective role unsustainable. This realization is most evident when Trump addresses Israel’s desire to illegally annex the West Bank. He is now ready to take action, using unprecedented language: The annexation “won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries.” He insisted: “Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened.”

Such a phrase is unprecedented in the history of US-Israeli relations. Yet, this defiance could easily be dismissed as Trumpian showmanship — bold statements that rarely translate into coherent policy. During his second term, Trump called for an end to the war but did little to stop it, expressing sympathy toward Gazans while still supplying Israel with weapons. His contradictions make it difficult to distinguish conviction from performance...

Read more: Why Trump’s Israel ultimatum is a reassertion of US control

___________________

ZOHRAN MAMDANI’S HISTORIC RUN WILL ALSO HELP FREE JEWS, AND U.S. POLITICS, FROM ZIONISM

Source: Mondoweiss
https://mondoweiss.net/2025/10/zohran-mamdanis-historic-run-will-also-help-free-jews-and-u-s-politics-from-zionism/

By Philip Weiss
Published October 31, 2025

Zohran Mamdani’s historic campaign for New York mayor marks a significant moment for Jewish identity as more Jews distance themselves from Zionism. This will be a fierce generational fight with wide-reaching effects on American politics.

Zohran Mamdani at the Resist Fascism Rally in New York City’s Bryant Park on October 27, 2024. (Photo: Bingjiefu He, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0)

The lobby’s power must be addressed if we are ever going to have peace in the Middle East, and the lobby will have to be taken down inside the Jewish community.

Jewish anti-Zionists can’t do this work on our own.

A scorned minority in the Jewish community, we have always depended on non-Jews for support and learning. Mamdani is the latest such ally, and likely the most revolutionary.

Zohran Mamdani’s historic run for New York mayor is a massive moment for Jewish identity, boosting Jews who argue that Judaism is not synonymous with Zionism.

According to polls, two out of three young Jews are expected to vote for Mamdani, and overall, a substantial minority of Jews will support him (43 percent).

These Jews accept or even celebrate Mamdani’s Palestinian solidarity. Mamdani takes positions that were previously a third rail in politics: He supports BDS against Israel, and he says Israel committed a genocide in Gaza. He says he would seek to arrest Netanyahu as a war criminal if he came to New York.

The New York Times is compelled to quote Jewish Voice for Peace, the anti-Zionist group that hails Mamdani’s campaign as a fight “for the humanity, dignity, and freedom of all people — from NYC to Palestine.” JVP has generally been invisible or the subject of scare commentary, banished from Columbia University under pressure from donors.

Zionists are, of course, fighting back. More than 1,000 rabbis have rallied against Mamdani, saying that the assemblyman is fanning the flames of antisemitism. These rabbis say that supporting Israel is central to Jewish religion, and this view represents the Jewish majority and “the Jewish future.” And some of those rabbis are J Street rabbis — so-called liberal Zionists.

If Mamdani does what he’s expected to do – win with Jews on the dais — anti-Zionists will gain a strong voice inside the Jewish community to raise important questions: Why is Jewish nationalism an article of religious faith — and not just some ethnosupremacist ideology, no different from Jim Crow? Is it good for Jews to be associated with apartheid and ethnic cleansing and the massacres of children?...

Read more: Zohran Mamdani’s historic run will also help free Jews, and U.S. politics, from Zionism

___________________

OPINION | NO GOOD GOVERNMENT CAN EXIST IN ISRAEL WITHOUT JEWISH-ARAB COOPERATION

Source: Haaretz
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2025-11-03/ty-article-opinion/.premium/no-good-government-can-exist-in-israel-without-jewish-arab-cooperation/0000019a-4a7e-dda1-a99e-cffebff60000

By Michal Sella
Published November 3, 2025

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, right, Palestinian Yasser Arafat, center, and Israeli Shimon Peres in 1995.Credit: Yaacov Saar/GPO

To offer Israel a better future, which enables a change in direction on the domestic and international level, we have to join hands, symbolically and practically, with Arab society.

This week, Israelis mark the 30th anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Once again, they'll mention Benjamin Netanyahu and the balcony in Jerusalem's Zion Square (where an infamous anti-Rabin rally was held), maybe someone will note that the Oslo Accords were the last time the word "peace" was uttered by an Israeli leader, not an American one.

Maybe the pundits will write that there's now an opportunity for a regional agreement and say that Rabin must be proud there, in his grave. The probability that they'll discuss an equally important political issue that Rabin advanced – Jewish-Arab political cooperation in Israel – is very slight.

Now, when we're in an election year, we should discuss such cooperation. It's important to discuss it especially because so many groups, and not only on the right, are trying to prevent it. Only recently there was a meeting of all the opposition leaders, led by Naftali Bennett – who isn't an MK and whose political power is based only on opinion polls at this point – that did not include the Arab MKs.

So it's not only Prime Minister Netanyahu who openly excludes Arabs – more elegant and polite "centrist" groups do so as well.

We now have an excellent opportunity to talk about Rabin, who wasn't afraid to change his mind. The general who called to "break the arms and legs" of Palestinian militants during the first intifada, proved that he was a genuine leader, with a vision and a plan of action, when he said at an election conference in Nazareth in 1992: "We've been in power for 29 years and we're to blame for the discrimination. I beg forgiveness, and I plan to take steps to eliminate discrimination."...

Read more: Opinion | No Good Government Can Exist in Israel Without Jewish-Arab Cooperation