Israeli right-wing politicians have hailed Donald Trump’s victory, saying they hoped it would translate into closer ties between Israel and US imperialism. Far-right Education Minister Naftali Bennett was among the first Israeli officials to congratulate US president-elect Trump on Wednesday morning, November 9, saying the Republican’s victory was “an opportunity” to do away with the pursuit of a two-state solution once and for all. “Trump’s victory is an opportunity for Israel to immediately retract the notion of a Palestinian state in the center of the country, which would hurt our security and [our] just cause,” Bennett said in a statement. “This is the position of the president-elect, as written in his platform, and it should be our policy, plain and simple,” he said. “The era of a Palestinian state is over.”

Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu at Trump Tower, September 25, 2016 (Photo: GPO)

Meanwhile, opposition Left MKs voiced greater circumspection, with MK Dov Khenin (Hadash – Joint List) , a leading communist activist, saying “Trump was not elected by a racist minority, but by an overlooked majority of angry and frustrated citizens, whose anger at the system is not only understandable, but justified — due to record-breaking inequality, an increasing gap between the upper echelon and the working class, and a growing number of people realizing that the system is working against them.” Khenin added “Trump was elected in a country that elected a black president by a large majority on two occasions,” and said “Trump’s campaign showed that when there is no real solution to a systemic crisis on offer from the Left, a dangerous and false response grows with monstrous rapidity from the right.” Khenin termed the results worrisome, adding: “But it is important to remember that a politics of true change doesn’t begin and doesn’t end with the election.”

According to Joint List MK Yousef Jabareen (Hadash) “The positions expressed by both candidates on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were almost identical, and I don’t think the identity of the president elect will change the unfair mediation policies of the US in our region and its automatic support for Israel. I hope that Trump as a president will disconnect from the racist and violent discourse that accompanied his election campaign, particularly toward minorities and women.”