Israel’s Enemies are Positioning for the Next War – Why is Trump Helping Them?

Peloni:  Since his return to the White House in his second term in office, Pres. Trump has taken many hard positions relative to Israel in apparent deference to his Arab partners, positions which are hard to explain or ignore, some of which Al Bienenfeld shares below.  This being stated, Trump’s policies on whole have benefited Israel in various and significant ways, not the least of which was the support for Israel having targeted the Iranian regime with extreme prejudice.  This fact hasn’t been changed by Trump’s subsequent actions which included the reported scuttling of the potential coup de grâce in the form of a Kurdish ground assault, nor by the quizzical attempt to charm the charmless IRGC into accepting the hopefully now defunct MOU.  In recent months, the tensions between Trump and Netanyahu have been evident, but still limited, revealing what is difficult to ignore reality that Trump wants Bibi to agree to something which is either beyond his ability or his conscience to agree.

What that item or items is remains to be seen, but what strikes me as likely is some measure by which to move forward a post war trade compact which was the talk of the town prior to October 7 as IMEC.  While we will learn the truth of all this in years to come, what is clearly evident today is that there are tensions and demands being pushed on Israel to satisfy nations which are all too happy to describe Israel as an enemy nation, to describe Israel’s destruction as an ultimate good, and to liter the media with biased reports and outright Jew Hatred.  Amid all of this, Trump still chides Bibi with occasional barbs and criticizes the IDF for acts of wanton civilian destruction which simply is not supported by unchallenged facts.  So, as Bienfeld questions below, as Israel’s enemies are positioning for the next war, why is Trump helping them?

Al Bienenfeld

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a global leadership summit on the end of the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas at the Tonino Lamborghini International Convention Center in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, Monday, October 13, 2025. Photo by Daniel Torok – Flickr, Public Domain, Wikipedia

Looking at President Trump’s Middle East policies, you can draw one of two conclusions. First, that he does not know what he is doing, which is the best-case scenario or worse, that he does. People at places like ISRAPUNDIT, MEMRI, Gatestone and elsewhere are now looking at Trump’s relationship with the world’s only Jewish State as unfriendly to adversarial with just cause.

The way to understanding President Trump is through the lens of Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) a Florentine diplomat, author, philosopher and historian during the Italian Renaissance. He is best known for his political treatise “The Prince” (1532). Machiavelli has often been called the father of modern political philosophy and science.

After his death Machiavelli’s name came to evoke unscrupulous acts of the sort he recommended in his most famous work, “The Prince.” He observed that rulers will have to take on unsavory practices in the furtherance of their political society and to engage in evil when political necessity dictates. An example of the “necessary evil” would be killing their political enemies and should be excused for it. “The Prince” is often perceived as a manual for would be tyrants.

Today, the term Machiavellian has the following connotations:

As an adjective:
1. Suggestive of or characterized by expediency, deceit, and cunning.
2. Attempting to achieve their goals by cunning, scheming, and unscrupulous methods.
3. Of or relating to Machiavelli or the principles of conduct he recommended.

As a noun:

1. A ruthless schemer.
2. A follower of Machiavelli’s principles.

The first glimpse of the President’s attitude towards the Middle East and his relationship with Israel was when he inserted himself into the hostage situation. Roughly 30 days before his 2025 inauguration, he issued an ultimatum to Hamas. Release the hostages or all hell would break loose. The implication being that failure to cooperate would result in American military action to force the issue. This did not occur. Instead, Trump pressured Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to accept a ceasefire to facilitate the release of a small number of hostages. The ceasefire allowed Hamas to relocate hostages and place explosives where they were, in the hopes of catching IDF soldiers unaware. IDF soldiers fought, bled and died for information on the hostages. This situation persisted until the release of the last hostages. The hostages and their families were pawns.

In total almost 2000 terrorists went free in October of 2025 as part of the final hostage negotiations conducted by Trump’s representatives. He forced the Prime Minister’s hand, as the families of the victims heavily influenced much of the government’s thinking. His negotiators gave Hamas whatever they wanted.

How many IDF soldiers died because of Trump’s interference? He has made their sacrifices worthless in his current Gaza charade. His family business will engender many billions of dollars in development fees from the rebuilding of Gaza and Hamas will thrive. This is in fact the case, as Khaled Abu Toameh has written at Gatestone on 8/27/26 that Hamas will be allowed to participate in Gaza elections by running under a different name. [See America’s New Scam? Hamas elections by another name is still Hamas.] They will find a way to win at the polls if allowed to run.

On March 23, 2025, it was reported special envoy Steve Witkoff acknowledged in a Sunday interview that Hamas may have duped him earlier in the month discussing extending the ceasefire.

From Envoy Witkoff:

“I thought we had an acceptable deal. I even thought we had an approval from Hamas. Maybe that’s just me getting duped. I thought we were there, and evidently, we weren’t,” Witkoff told Fox News Sunday.

Imagine, a terrorist lying. Who would have thought!

Between March 15 and May 6 of 2025, America’s military confronted the Houthi pirates in Yemen to secure safe passage for commercial vessels through the Red Sea and around the horn of Africa. After a stated 1000 strikes, the Houthi threat in these vital waters had been degraded but not stopped.

The IDF said on Tuesday, May 6, that it had conducted a wide array of air strikes across Yemen, targeting Sanaa international airport, electric power stations, the port city of Hudaydah and an important cement manufacturing facility. The strikes were conducted in response to the repeated attacks by the Houthis against Israel, during which surface-to-surface missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles were launched toward Israeli civilians.

After two successive nights of IAF (Israeli Air Force) strikes they caved and agreed to stop attacking Western shipping but insisted that they would continue to go after Israeli targets. President Trump’s truce excluded Israel. In fact, he failed to acknowledge Israel’s participation in the action against the Houthi pirates. Israel was never informed of the truce by our ally, only finding out about it from the Internet.

Think about it. America with an 800-billion-dollar military budget could not defeat a group of third world pirates without tiny Israel’s help! We should have been able to resolve the threat in less than half the time we spent without Israeli help.

On June 22, 2025, American bombers struck Iranian nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. By all accounts the mission was a success. It began on June 13 with Israeli aircraft taking control of the skies over Iran. Consequently, there were no enemy aircraft to contend with or antiaircraft missiles resulting from prior Israeli actions in October of 2024. President Trump failed to acknowledge Israeli actions. Even worse he stopped them from going after the Iranian missile stockpiles afterwards, forcing an end to the attack. Why is no one speaking of this now?

Think about it. We could have acted in 2025 saving American lives and treasure. Iran was given a full year to prepare for the next attack. Today we are engaged in a farce of a war with Iran, and we have excluded the Israelis. That is like benching Tom Brady (the best quarterback in NFL history) before the Super Bowl. 

It is obvious at this point that Trump is interested only in saving the Iranian Regime. He refuses to bring Israel into the fight and went as far as to prevent a joint Israeli/Kurdish attack to finish off the Regime. The next logical question is why? The answer is not complicated. He is controlled by the “Muslim Mafia” (Turkey, Qatar and Pakistan). So much of his newfound wealth since inauguration comes from the Jihadist World.

Follow the money!

In a June 26, 2026, piece Michel Benchimol makes the case that our President has been bought. The Transactional Presidency summarizes why Trump does what he does.

From Benchimol:

It is influence-structural, financial and continuous. 

An ideology that reduces alliances to ledger entries. 

That reframes loyalty as leverage. 

That treats long standing commitments as negotiable positions.

Donald Trump once promised to drain the swamp.

What emerged looks less like reform and more like consolidation.

Power.

Capital.

Policy.

Alignment.

Part of Trump’s anti-Israel strategy is to diminish the benefits of our relationship with the Jewish State in the minds of the American people. In 2025 Trump deliberately refused to acknowledge Israeli participation fighting the Houthis, their destruction of anti-aircraft weaponry, and control of the airspace above Iran preventing enemy aircraft from flying against us in the June 2025 Iran mission.

Having Hamas change their name as they return to power will allow Trump to paint Israel as the obstacle to peace in Gaza. Most of the world will buy it, out of anti Semitism. World leaders working with Trump will attempt to bully Israel into submission.

Israel must recalibrate its relationship with a now adversarial American government.  Donald Trump saved Hamas, Hezbollah and is cooperating with Jihadists surrounding Israel in a “death sandwich.” Syria is essentially a proxy for Erdogan’s ambitions to destroy the Jewish State. Egypt has been massing forces beyond what is permitted by the 1979 Peace Treaty for almost two years. Trump has blocked Israel from acting on this breach of the peace. Trump will likely save the Iranian Regime/Ideology for the upcoming war the Jihadists are now positioning for. He acknowledges this by saying that while he is President, there will be no war.

He knows full well what is coming. 

However, despite his clever manipulation, Trump is ignorant.

American decline is evidenced by our weapons programs. We have eleven aircraft carriers, however only 3-4 are seaworthy. Our fleet of approximately 630 F-35s has an operational readiness of about 50% based on information available online. In truth it is not that good as a recent Pentagon audit indicates fraudulent reporting.  Army helicopters are reported to be crashing at historically high rates as a result of mechanical problems and pilot error.

Israel can help America with its weapons programs. According to Ambassador Yoram Ettinger, Israeli input saved our F-35 program from being a two trillion-dollar disaster. There was a year’s long history of problems here that Israel helped resolve. Now America has announced a push towards laser powered weaponry. Israel successfully fielded lasers to take out drones in 2025. American access to this technology should be denied. Advances in this field could be a game changer not to be shared with potential adversaries. The U.S. appears more than willing to sell Israeli inspired technology to their enemies such as the Saudis and Turks.

Failed weapons programs will not be turned around. Former potential customers are turning away from us even now. Despite need, Trump insults and rejects Israel. Given America’s attitude towards the Jewish State, Israel must rethink how much technology it shares.