US President Donald Trump on Sunday endorsed ally Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of Israel’s tightly contested parliamentary election on October 27, giving a lift to the veteran prime minister’s effort to secure a fresh mandate.
In a video released by his Likud party, Netanyahu highlighted his close ties with the US president, stating that together they had “crushed Iran” and adding that re-election would let him work with Trump to “eliminate the Iranian threat over the next two years, or even sooner.”
The endorsement arrives less than two weeks before Israel’s first election since the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, which opposition politicians say Netanyahu bears personal responsibility for after allegedly disregarding warnings.
Trump and Netanyahu, who polls indicate is in a close election race, have collaborated closely on Israel’s multi-front wars following the Hamas-led attack, including strikes on Iran, and the endorsement could provide a boost to his re-election bid.
“Bibi Netanyahu has been strong, brave, and brilliant in the face of tremendous opposition, including that coming from even Israel itself,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, using a common nickname for the Israeli leader.
“This is the kind of partner that the United States of America is demanding of Israel, a country for which it has done so much. Please let this letter serve to represent my complete and total endorsement of Bibi Netanyahu in his upcoming race for re-election as prime minister of Israel.”
The election is viewed as a referendum on Netanyahu, who on Sunday was quick to thank the US leader for his support.
“Thank you, President Trump, for your tremendous support and for our work together. Together we will complete the mission!” he wrote on X.
“I ask you to listen carefully to what President Trump said this evening,” Netanyahu told voters. “He said that together we have accomplished extraordinary things… But there is still a mission to complete.”
The support follows a warning from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio about a growing “crisis” in the occupied West Bank, after an American photojournalist working for The Washington Post was hurt in a violent attack by Israeli settlers.
“We’re very disturbed by those images and what we’re seeing,” Rubio told reporters Saturday. Netanyahu’s office stated that it was investigating the circumstances around the attack.
As Israel and Netanyahu appear more and more isolated around the world, Trump’s backing matters a great deal.
Netanyahu, who turns 77 on October 21, is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, having held the office on and off for over 19 years.
This crafty political operator came back to power in December 2022, bringing in ultra-nationalists who had once been avoided and quickly moving to limit the courts, which are looking at corruption charges that could put him in prison.
His main rival in the election is opposition politician Gadi Eisenkot, head of the centre-right Yashar party and a former military chief who often says Netanyahu bears personal responsibility for the October 7 attack.
Around seven million Israelis will be able to vote in the legislative election.
Current polls show that neither Netanyahu’s bloc nor the one led by Eisenkot can win the 61 seats needed to control the 120-seat parliament and form a governing coalition.
Eisenkot said that only Israelis could decide who they want to lead the country.
Speaking at a conference in Tel Aviv, Eisenkot said he “admires” Trump, “but Israel is a democratic country; only Israelis can choose their leaders.”
But Trump warned against Israel electing “anyone other than Bibi,” writing that if voters picked one of his rivals, “America will have to do this work ourselves, and I am not inclined to do so.”
