How the US-Israel alliance has evolved, for better and worse, a year into Trump

One year into President Donald Trump’s second term, the relationship between the United States and Israel has been tested on several fronts, including a brief but significant confrontation with Iran and a prolonged effort to secure peace in Gaza, foreign policy experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Dealing with issues related to Israel has been a major focus of Trump’s first year back at the White House, and he spent significant political capital to negotiate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and to settle Jerusalem’s brief but decisive conflict with Iran over its nuclear program. As the U.S.-Israel relationship faces tough scrutiny from both the left and the right, experts spoke to the DCNF about how the relationship has evolved during an eventful 2025, and where it might lead as Trump takes on three more years of power.

“It was very frustrating to leave the relationship between the United States and Israel on such a high with the Abraham Accords in 2020, and then come in to find the relationship really in tatters after what I consider to be the almost overt abuse of the Biden administration in two years of war after after October 7. [Trump] moved quickly to mend those ties.”

Trump made securing a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel a high priority for his administration, ultimately succeeding in October. Both sides have since carried out limited strikes and accused each other of violating the terms, but the agreement remains in place and has held back major hostilities.

However, Israel launched a strike on Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, for the first time in months. The strike targeted and eliminated Hezbollah Chief of Staff Haytham Ali Tabatabai, but also killed five others and injured 28, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Many conservatives have grown more skeptical of the U.S.-Israel relationship, pointing to Israel’s involvement in numerous conflicts with its neighbors and the potential of Israel to drag the U.S. into a conflict in the future.

“On the argument that Israel is an important partner for the United States in the Middle East: Show me the receipts for that,” Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told the DCNF. “Where are the big wins for the United States that Israel has helped deliver?”

The U.S. burned through nearly a quarter of missile interceptors to defend Israel from Iranian missile attacks during the 12-day war. Defense experts have long sounded the alarm that shrinking U.S. stockpiles of critical munitions could leave America unprepared to face China in a war over Taiwan.

Amid those challenges, some officials aligned with the Trump administration continue to argue that Israel’s relationship with the U.S. remains worth guarding.

Victoria Coates, former deputy national security advisor during Trump’s first term, told the DCNF that Israel’s extensive defense and technology cooperation with the U.S. has been a great help in the development of the Golden Dome missile defense system, aimed at protecting the American mainland from incoming ballistic missiles.

“What we are now building, in terms of Golden Dome in the first year of the Trump term, I don’t think would be possible without the participation of Israel,” Coates told the DCNF. “That is a very material gain for us, for the American people. They are a very small country, but they have punched so hugely above their weight in terms of innovation.”

Parsi said that the Israeli strikes on Doha, Qatar were a turning point for the administration’s perception of Israel, arguing that the strikes severely damaged the U.S.’ confidence in Israel’s supposed push for peace in the Middle East.

“We saw a change that was in the making, which was a lot of frustration in the White House with Israel and with Netanyahu in particular,” Parsi told the DCNF. “Trump started to recognize that Israel was becoming political baggage for him.”

Trump was reportedly furious with Netanyahu after the strikes in Doha, saying the prime minister was “f*cking” him. Israel failed to kill any of Hamas’ leadership in the strikes, only killing 5 Hamas personnel and one Qatari security officer. There were conflicting accounts as to whether Trump was notified about the strikes on Qatar before they happened, with Israeli officials insisting that they gave the president at least short notice prior to the event.

Trump has expressed frustration with Netanyahu and Israel multiple times during his term, but Coates does not believe any actions that may have angered Trump will have a lasting impact on the relationship.

“I actually don’t think it was damaged, because I don’t think it was all that personal to begin with, having interacted with them on a fairly regular basis,” Coates told the DCNF regarding Netanyahu and Trump’s relationship. “They are both politicians, they are colleagues. They both have a very profound respect and appreciation for the U.S.-Israel relationship. But they’re not friends. It’s not a personal relationship, [and] I don’t say that to denigrate it.”

Trump and Netanyahu continue to publicly support one another, and both have reaffirmed their commitment to the important, long-standing alliance. However, Trump acknowledged in September the significant impact that Israel-aligned lobbying efforts have had in shaping U.S. policy, and previously told the DCNF that he believes their power is waning in Congress.

“I mean, I will tell you, Israel had the strongest lobby in Congress of anything or body, or of any company or corporation or state that I’ve ever seen. Israel was the strongest. Today, it doesn’t have that strong a lobby. It’s amazing,” Trump told the Daily Caller’s Reagan Reese.

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