"Netanyahu loves Erdoğan too", empty words… Trump's last joke of the year

In these last days of 2025 everyone is trying to close the year with a profit. Everyone seems to count himself as winning in proportion to how much he can snatch from the balance. There is a rush at Netanyahu's meeting with Trump. Trump seems to be in a rush to add another 8 peaces on top of the 8 peaces he achieved within a year. But there are not that many warring countries in the world; perhaps he is trying to display the creative performance of foreseeing and stopping future wars in advance. It did not happen this year, but perhaps next term it will be the Nobel. Who could deserve it more? True, he said so last year too, but while he stood there with all his efforts, an unheard-of woman turned up and snatched it away.

When Trump, hosting Netanyahu at the White House, stood in front of the cameras with his guest at the end of the meeting, everyone was waiting ready to hear what they wanted to hear. But Trump, in his own style, left ambiguous (mutashabih) words and thereby both pleased everyone and failed to answer anyone's expectations fully.

According to Haaretz, Trump's statements were like a text written by Netanyahu, that is, he got open and clear support from Trump. Despite the backstage talk and leaks circulating on the American side that patience has run out, the newspaper noted that Trump's statements appeared largely in line with Netanyahu's positions.

This alignment, it said, showed itself in avoiding setting a binding timetable for moving to a new phase of the ceasefire in Gaza, in the absence of any open pressure on the Israeli government, and in the hints that the U.S. is ready for military intervention at Israel's side if Iran restarts its nuclear program.

Trump also spoke of a possible presidential pardon for Netanyahu, within the scope of the corruption cases being conducted against him in Israel. This statement caused wide repercussions as an unprecedented interference in the Israeli judiciary. Following this, Israeli President Isaac Herzog denied that there had been any direct contact with Trump about this file.

Yet in other outlets it was underlined that, in the same speech, Trump told Netanyahu in an almost imperious tone "Change your West Bank policy!" In a context in which the Trump administration assesses that rising tension in the West Bank will make it harder to implement the ceasefire agreement reached in Gaza, these words are a clear warning to Netanyahu. Trump is evidently quite familiar with how Israel's aggression and expansion policies are perceived in the U.S. and now assesses that this is doing great harm to himself, to the U.S. and to his party.

For those who think that, because of the Epstein case, Trump's strings are in the hands of MOSSAD, and therefore of Netanyahu, Trump's words at the press conference are certainly in need of separate explanation. It is very clear that Trump does not consider himself a hostage in Netanyahu's hands because of the Epstein case. Perhaps Trump does not care about this case as much as we think, or perhaps he does not believe so much in Israel's power to control this case.

Because, contrary to Haaretz's report, Trump said a lot of things that Netanyahu would not at all want to hear. To Netanyahu, who wanted to complain about Erdoğan, he returned again and again to praise Erdoğan, his leadership, his experience and his "saving" success in Syria. It is very clear that Netanyahu cannot possibly accept that Syria has been saved from Israel's point of view. The meaning Trump attributes to the toppling of Assad in Syria is not the same as the meaning Netanyahu or Israel attributes to it.

But in terms of international official discourse and the actual humanitarian situation, Trump sees the development in Syria as a "salvation," the deliverance of a people from the hand of a tyrant dictator and, of course, from a murderous regime that produced terror, drugs and instability. In this he also appreciates Erdoğan's role and does not hold back from stating it openly at every opportunity.

It is very clear that there is an obvious difference between Trump and Netanyahu. But for this difference to be converted into a positive outcome does not happen automatically. For now, Netanyahu's need of Trump is far greater than Trump's need of Netanyahu, or even of Israel. Not only on the international plane but in his own domestic politics, the need he feels for Trump seems to force him to listen to many things he would rather not hear from Trump.

Trump tells Netanyahu, who regards the new regime in Syria as a threat to himself, that al-Sharaa too is a strong and trustworthy leader. This is something Netanyahu would never want to hear, but Trump says it without any hesitation, and by adding that Israel must get along well with Syria he both throws Israel's aggression in its face and proposes a new policy. If we know Israel even a little, this is not something it can accept. Perhaps, as always, it may be a pledge that it plans to appear to accept and ultimately violate. Because Netanyahu sees in al-Sharaa no profile different from the Palestinian resistance. What he sees is not wrong either.

In my view, the remark in Trump's press conference that raised the bar higher against Netanyahu was the one in which, while expressing his views and feelings about Erdoğan, he made Netanyahu a partner in them: when he said "I like Erdoğan, Bibi likes him too, isn't that right, Bibi?" it was clear that he was presenting Netanyahu with a fait accompli. What could Netanyahu say? Of course he did not like Erdoğan, could not like him, and will not be able to.

As if it were not enough, his saying he could sell F-35s to Türkiye also put him fully offside against Greece and the Greek Cypriot Administration, who had set out trusting him only two days earlier.

Of course the dream Haaretz saw on Netanyahu's behalf is another matter. But to be the addressee of this statement (Netanyahu likes Erdoğan) and not be able to object to it. Let him close this year with this nightmare; may Erdoğan enter Netanyahu's nightmares. In 2026, may Erdoğan, and the justice he represents, be Israel's nightmare.

CONDOLENCE: Peace be upon Abu Obaida (Hudhayfa Samir al-Kahlout), who has joined the caravan of martyrs. The Caravan of Martyrs is now more alive, freer, more luminous. He was a personality raised by the Qur'an; on the path the Qur'an pointed out, he sold his worldly goods, his life, his soul, in God's way at a very profitable price. I could not get enough of gazing at the face that appeared after his martyrdom. What a luminous, what a blessed face, a face that tells tons of things. May God make him a companion to His angels and a neighbor to His prophets.