Even Israeli Leftists are celebrating Donald Trump
While young left-wing Americans march in “No Kings” protests, Israeli left-wingers laud Trump for the fragile Gaza-Israel ceasefire, calling for him to receive the Nobel Prize
On a sunny Friday, a day after the announcement of the ceasefire deal, I sat with a friend of mine, in a trendy café in north Tel Aviv. “I just love Trump!” she declared, misty-eyed. My friend, who has been proudly left-wing for as long as she can remember; who despises Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right coalition members; who has been participating in countless anti-government protests – blocking highways and being blasted by police water cannon – found herself in her mid-thirties “in love” with the American President.
As Israel trudges toward a 2026 election after the longest, most agonising war in its history, seems like Trump (and the return of the Israeli hostages) has become the nearest thing to a national consensus.
Trump’s face, with slogans such as “Thank You, Mister President”, are smeared all over Israel: from the main junctions of the conservative-right-wing Jerusalem to the skyscrapers of the liberal-left-wing Tel Aviv. Stalls in Jerusalem market sell kippot with Trump’s portrait; Israeli hipster artists draw him in an image of a dove of peace. Perhaps, if Trump could run for the Israeli elections, he might win by a landslide. Israel is in love.
You cannot blame the Israelis for that. American domestic drama feels distant to people who have lived for two years as if the end of the world is coming (or already came). Even in calmer days at my old Jerusalem newsdesk, when there were “only” daily terror attacks, we used to say an ordinary Israeli news day packs a normal country’s decade. But the last two years were a different scale.
Since 2023, Israelis have had to normalise multi-front conflict, that among others includes: the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust; an agonising hostage crisis; nightly ballistic missiles and suicide drones from Yemen; hectic Russian roulette-style bombardment from Iran; occasional terror attacks within Israel; mass deployment of reserve soldiers that had to leave their civic life and families for hundreds of days; increased feeling of isolation from the rest of the world, and more. And with all that, you were still expected to be on time for work and call your mama once a day.
So once the American President, even before the beginning of his current term, managed to bring a ceasefire agreement, that included release of some hostages and humanitarian relief for Gaza, the Israeli left, which largely has similar stands to the US Democrats, opened its heart to him.
When Trump arrived to deliver his historic address to the Knesset following the current ceasefire announcement, members across the aisle—from the far right to the far left—applauded him for a full two minutes. Even the two far-left MKs, Ayman Odeh and Ofer Cassif of the Hadash–Ta’al alliance, whose heckling led to their swift removal from the chamber, did not break that unusual show of unity. Trump even praised the leader of the opposition, Yair Lapid, saying, “He’s a nice man,” and urged Netanyahu to be “nicer” to him.
“My favourite thing about Trump is how he slippers Bibi (i.e. Netanyahu), and Bibi just must silently contain it”, my friend giggled over her cappuccino. Indeed, Trump has delivered some truly iconic and comical moments, while Netanyahu – who fully gambled once again on Trump at the expense of the long-lasting Israeli foreign policy for strategic preservation of bipartisan support in the US – has had to take the Donald Trump Show on the chin.
In January 2025, for instance, Trump posted a clip to Truth Social featuring economist Jeffrey Sachs, who called Netanyahu a “deep, dark son of a bitch”, orchestrating “endless wars” in the Middle East. Netanyahu kept schtum.
And in an interview with Fox News after announcing a Gaza ceasefire deal, the US President recounted his phone call with Netanyahu. “I spoke to Bibi Netanyahu just a little while ago”, said Trump, using Netanyahu’s nickname. “He said, ‘I can’t believe it. Everybody is liking me now,’ meaning him. I said, ‘More importantly, they are loving Israel again’”. Netanyahu bit his tongue.
The Forum for the Hostages’ Families even submitted Trump’s name to the Nobel Peace Prize committee and distributed massive eye-catching signs in his support in the weekly protests at the Hostages Square. They were not hiding that they believe that only Trump could rotate Netanyahu towards the ceasefire deal. “Trump must receive the Nobel Peace Prize”, asserted another friend of mine, who has been organising anti-Netanyahu and anti-war protests. “Actually, he can also get the Nobel for Physics too – whatever he wants”.
Barack Obama was the last American President who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. It happened in 2009, less than a year into his first term. The Nobel committee championed Obama for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”; or as gen-Zs will sum it up: for vibes. But vibes are not quite enough in tough neighbourhoods in the “wild-wild East”. Whether it is the Middle East, Eastern Europe or the Far East, soft words mean nothing if you don’t wave your big gun, let alone if you’re supposed to be the sheriff.
And in the Middle East, which since the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire is distinguished with the absence of an unambiguous regional superpower, external sheriffs are vital. Obama’s noble intentions, as voiced in his famous 2009 Cairo speech promising a “new beginning” with the Arab and Islamic world, brought at best a breath of hope that quickly faded away. At worst, it made America look like an unarmed – but very eloquent – sheriff.
In the vacuum, the region spun into mayhem: the contagious unrest of the Arab Spring, that escalated into extremely violent civil wars in Syria and Yemen; the barbaric conquest and purges by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS); Iran’s exploitation of the chaos to intervene in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen; an influx of refugees to Europe, and more. Then Russia, the forgotten sheriff, stepped in, and shortly after opened a front against Ukraine – another Eastern neighbourhood that the American sheriff had abandoned.
It was not all due to Obama, of course, but we can only imagine how many lives could have been saved if Washington had been more decisive about the butchering of Syrians by Bashar Al-Assad, for instance. Instead, by the end of his two terms, a rare regional consensus held that the Obama’s administration’s mix of action in some areas and inaction in others had helped the unravelling.
America had tried to leave the Middle East as part of Obama’s “pivot to Asia” policy; now, however, America’s regional dominance is undoubtable. Within months, Washington wasn’t only engaged in the brokering of ceasefires, but it also boldly sent its B-2 bombers to aid Israel to bombard Iranian nuclear facilities, signed an executive order to protect Qatar and is negotiating a similar agreement with Saudi, has been pushing for a widening of the Abraham Accords, is sniffing around the new Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa, is closely monitoring the disarming of Hezbollah in Lebanon, and more. The American sheriff is back in town, armed with a big gun.
These displays of military might, economic sanctions, and aggressive diplomacy are what Trump calls “peace through strength”. If these steps do not bring the US the region’s respect, they at least provide a deterrence, and some peace of mind to Israel and America’s other regional allies.
While young liberal Americans march under “No Kings” banners, Obama — still the Democrats’ most popular figure — tries to rally Americans to defend their democracy against a man many see as a would-be monarch. Theoretically, Israeli liberals, who have been fighting and protesting forcefully against the decline in Israel’s democracy under Netanyahu’s governments, can find deep sympathy for their struggle. But as any Middle Easterner, they understand: maybe in America there are no kings, but in a region in which countries are still led by actual kings, we all still need a sheriff, an American king. Because outcomes beat intentions, no matter how noble they are, and a superpower that refuses to act like one can’t underwrite peace.
So long live King Donald Trump!
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