‘netanyahu Fatigue’ In Washington After Israel Vote

Israel’s election deadlock has dashed hopes in Washington for a quick reset of the U.S.-Israel relationship — an alliance that has frayed across party lines during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s long tenure.

Despite vociferous support from President Donald Trump for Netanyahu, factions in the administration and both parties in Congress had hoped the Israeli opposition would prevail and begin to undo years of worsening relations they attribute to Netanyahu.

“It would be an opportunity to stop the bleeding by virtue of governing Israel in a way that’s less provocative,” a former Trump administration official said of the mood in much of Washington following the results. “There is Netanyahu fatigue here.”

The individual, like others, was granted anonymity to freely discuss a sensitive and dynamic situation.

Critics of Netanyahu’s government in Washington span the political spectrum: Democrats — both moderates and progressives, top Trump officials such as Vice President JD Vance, and parts of the MAGA base that resent the U.S. involvement in foreign wars.

While Netanyahu has congressional allies — including Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) — the drumbeat of criticism has been pronounced. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) argued that Netanyahu is a major impediment to the U.S. extricating itself from the Iran war.

“If he is reelected, he will continue to be a very influential voice in Trump’s ear to continue to pursue regime change” in Iran, Murphy said at a Middle East Institute event Wednesday.

As of Wednesday’s partial vote count, neither Netanyahu’s Likud party and its allies nor opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party and its bloc had won enough seats for a majority in the 120-seat parliament. That sets the stage for a weeks- or months-long process of factions trying to form a governing coalition — and if neither succeeds, Israel could head to another round of elections.

That means Netanyahu will still be the decisionmaker in Israel as the U.S. goes into the midterms next week, and could maintain his grip on power long after.

Netanyahu, who has been in office on and off since the mid-1990s, is the face of many of Israel’s policies that are unpopular among American voters. Those include his campaign that has killed at least 74,000 Palestinians in Gaza in retaliation for the deadly 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, as well his rejection of a Trump-backed plan for disarming Hamas in Gaza and his encouragement of the U.S. going to war with Iran.

Trump stood by his endorsement of Netanyahu on Wednesday, contending his backing helped the Israeli leader avoid an outright loss. (Indeed, Netanyahu’s Likud party appears to have won a plurality of seats, confounding pre-election forecasts.) But Netanyahu has also repeatedly frustrated Trump, who once even called the Israeli leader “crazy.”

Matthew Bartlett, who served in the State Department during the first Trump administration, said Republicans were split on Israel, and that Trump himself articulated that divide.

“He will one day openly talk about his hostilities and intense conversations with Netanyahu, including profanity, and the next day, talk about the relationship and be lockstep in kinetic strikes,” he said. “It’s a bit schizophrenic.”

Trump’s endorsement of Netanyahu stemmed from both their personal relationship and tactical considerations, according to a former White House official who is still in touch with Trump’s inner circle.

“Endorsing Bibi ensures continuity and friendship if Likud defies gravity yet again,” the former official said, using a nickname for Netanyahu. “If we have Eisenkot or someone new, they’re going to need the president more than ever to introduce them to America and the world.”

And Republican Israel supporters may be hoping for a more subtle change in Israel’s government than a full unseating of Netanyahu, the former White House official said. That could include a unity government that excludes the most extreme Israeli leaders in Netanyahu’s current cabinet, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

"They make life hard," the person said of the pair. Smotrich has accelerated Jewish-only settlement construction in the West Bank, while Ben-Gvir has ordered harsh conditions for Palestinians held in Israel's prisons. Both have advocated the “voluntary emigration” of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu reportedly floated the idea of a unity government with the White House, according to The Washington Post. Eisenkot has batted away the suggestion.

Another former official who served in the first Trump administration said the White House likely wanted an Israeli government that is “more compliant” than Netanyahu’s current one, noting that “Smotrich and Ben-Gvir in the government would undermine almost every one of Trump’s visions for how he, Trump, comes out a winner on Middle East peace.” That problem could be solved with Netanyahu still in charge, the person explained.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Some Democratic lawmakers who support Israel have tried to bring together their internally divided party around the idea that Netanyahu was the driver of Israel’s problematic conduct. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, for example, has come out as a strong critic of Netanyahu over the past year, while still advocating for assistance to Israel’s military.

Schumer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The distinction between Netanyahu’s leadership and Israel’s actions is now harder to make.

“The deterioration in Israel’s standing among the American public is visible in every poll, across all demographics,” said Dan Shapiro, who served as U.S. ambassador to Israel in the Obama administration. “It's especially true among younger Americans, and much of that negativity attaches to Netanyahu.”

In the immediate term, most Americans don’t rank Israeli politics as a factor in their midterm decisions, according to data gathered for The POLITICO Poll ahead of Israel’s elections. The poll of some 2,000 respondents found no major Israeli leader likely to improve the country's political support in the U.S., and that approximately half of respondents saw the Israeli campaign in Gaza as unjustified or having gone too far.

“No clear winner has emerged in Israel's elections, leaving Donald Trump unsure whom he will spend the next two years submissively serving,” the Tucker Carlson Network noted with snark Wednesday on social media.

In a sign of how much some on the left had been hoping for an outright opposition victory, the liberal group J Street — whose president, Jeremy Ben-Ami, has blasted Netanyahu’s actions in the Gaza Strip and West Bank — declared an “unmistakable” victory for the opposition based on only early exit polls on Tuesday that showed Eisenkot’s bloc with a clear majority. That lead evaporated overnight.

Asked about the results, Ilan Goldenberg, J Street’s chief policy officer and a former adviser to Kamala Harris, maintained that the priority for those wanting change in Israel is for Netanyahu to go.

“Nothing positive when it comes to major American interests and Israeli behavior in the Middle East can change as long as Netanyahu is prime minister,” Goldenberg said. ”If he is removed, we're still going to have disagreements with a new government, but it'll be a step in the right direction.”

Inside the Republican Party, which is also dealing with a large bloc of younger voters who are critics of Israel, there’s some worry about whether Netanyahu’s staying power may worsen those divisions.

"Netanyahu is an easy target for influencers, and that represents what’s going on in the Middle East that they're unhappy about,” said a former House Republican staffer, speaking about conservative podcasters. Still, the ex-staffer noted that might not translate to immediate changes by Republican lawmakers, who have until now greeted criticism of Israel with “an eyeroll.”

There are Republicans in powerful positions who do more than eyeroll however. Vice President JD Vance admonished Israel that it had nearly no friends left in the world, and defended a memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran that Israel had blasted. Notably, he declined to endorse Netanyahu, though he stressed that he was simply deciding not to weigh in.

“There is a giant schism” over Israel in the GOP, said Bartlett, the former Trump State Department official.

A spokesperson for Vance did not respond to a request for comment.

Eisenkot’s gruff persona, forged in four decades in uniform including as Netanyahu’s former military chief of staff, appeals to some Americans with experience in the region. A former U.S. military official, granted anonymity to avoid appearing to influence a foreign election, called Eisenkot “very reflective” and likely to weigh narrowing war objectives before starting another major campaign.

But an Eisenkot administration would not necessarily rehabilitate Israel’s declining reputation in the U.S.

Although he haspledged to crack down on settler violence and follow Trump’s peace plan in Gaza, Eisenkot has ruled out a Palestinian state and promised to dismantle Hamas rule within 18 months. He has reminded voters he lost a son and two nephews to Hamas in Gaza, and said, “there’s no one in the state of Israel who wants to destroy them more than I do.”

“Moderate Dems and liberal Zionists want Israel to be something it isn’t. The problem with Israel is its apartheid, occupation and genocide,” said liberal Twitch streamer and commentator Hasan Piker. “I don’t think the Israeli policies will dramatically change once Netanyahu’s out of office.”

If Netanyahu remains in power, he could add momentum to Democratic efforts to advance punitive measures like blocking military sales to Israel or forcing more scrutiny of its policies in the West Bank and Gaza, particularly if the party flips one or both chambers of Congress next week. But Trump could still veto those efforts.

In Israel, the political limbo could have dramatic effects in the region.

Shira Efron, an Israel policy hand at RAND who has advised Israel’s defense ministry and national security council, argued Netanyahu could bomb Iran as part of his bid to stay in power.

“It’s not just to obstruct the creation of the different coalition. It’s also to force them into forming a unity government,” she said.

The coalition talks could also mean possible change for Palestinians. Parties led by members of Israel’s 20% Palestinian minority are projected to hold a record 19 seats in Israel’s parliament, making them kingmakers for an Eisenkot coalition. Netanyahu and some of Eisenkot’s allies have ruled out governing with Arab-led parties, although the opposition leader himself has left the door open.

“In the end, things will only change on the margins for Palestinians" with an opposition government, said Zaha Hassan, who advised the Palestinian negotiating team and is now a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “But that isn't nothing in light of the horrors some are living with in Gaza and the West Bank.”