US inaugural addresses are not policy speeches but broad-stroke statements of where the new president wants to take the country. US President Donald Trump’s second inaugural address on Monday was no exception.
As such, Israelis should not be concerned that their country did not merit a mention in the 29-minute address. Neither did Russia, Ukraine, or any European country.
The only countries mentioned were China (twice), Mexico (once), and Panama, leading the list with six mentions, all concerning the Panama Canal, which the president wants back.
However, the lack of any mention of Israel does not mean there were not some policy hints in that speech or in other remarks he made on a very busy inaugural day, as well as in the executive orders he signed.
Trump, who warned in December that hostages must be freed by his inauguration or “those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied history of the United States of America,” briefly noted Sunday’s release of three hostages. His wording was noteworthy, though one should avoid over-interpretation.
“I’m pleased to say that as of yesterday, one day before I assumed office, the hostages in the Middle East are coming back home to their families.”
“Hostages in the Middle East?” Why not just call a spade a spade and say the “Israeli hostages?”
Unlike the other unscripted speeches and comments he made on Monday, the inaugural speech was carefully crafted, every word obviously weighed and carefully considered.
The use of the term “hostages in the Middle East” seems aligned with the aspiration he set out in the sentence before this line, that he wants to be a “peacemaker and unifier.” As such, saying “hostages in the Middle East” frames this release as part of a larger regional resolution rather than solely an Israeli issue.
Later, at an event after the inauguration at the Capital One Arena, the president greeted the families of hostages – including freed hostage Noa Argamani – and called for the release of all the captives. “We’ve won, but now the work begins,” he said. “We have to bring them home.”
Another hint of US Middle East policy came in the inaugural address when Trump declared: “We will measure our success not only by the battles we win but also by the wars that we end. And, perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into.”
This is a signal that he is looking to reduce involvement abroad, not increase it, and should douse any illusions that some in Jerusalem may have had that the US under Trump might take direct military action in the Middle East, for instance, in Iran.
Another indication of this came when the president, asked whether the Gaza ceasefire would hold through all its phases, responded bluntly: “It’s not our war. It is their war. I am not confident. But I think they’re [Hamas] very weakened on the other side.” Note that he stressed it is their war.
Trump was more definitive in opposing Hamas governance in Gaza.
“You certainly can’t have the people that were there,” he said when asked about who will govern Gaza in the future.“Most of them are dead, by the way, right?” the president continued. “But they didn’t exactly run it well. Run viciously and badly. You can’t have that.”
Stating that the US might contribute to the reconstruction of Gaza but offering no promises, he said the coastal strip must be rebuilt “in a different way.”
“I looked at a picture of Gaza. Gaza is like a massive demolition site. That place is – it’s really got to be rebuilt in a different way,” Trump said. “It’s a phenomenal location. On the sea, the best weather. You know, everything is good. It’s like some beautiful things could be done with it.”
Executive orders
While there were hints of future policy in some of his rhetoric, a few of the numerous executive orders he signed on the first day of his presidency sent concrete signals to Israel.
The first was the order reversing former president Joe Biden’s sanctioning of more than a dozen settlers in Judea and Samaria, who the administration accused of violence against Palestinians and canceling sanctions against 16 right-wing organizations such as the settlement development arm Amana and Tzav 9, a group that organized protests to block aid convoys into Gaza during the current war.
These sanctions froze assets in America, banned entry into the US, and led Israeli banks, in some cases, to close accounts affiliated with the organizations so as not to be sanctioned by America.
More significant than its immediate impact was the message: Washington will not pursue the delegitimization of settlements or take concrete steps against them, a path Biden’s administration embraced with these sanctions.
Reinstating sanctions on ICC
Another critical move was reinstating sanctions against International Criminal Court officials targeting the US or its allies. Last year, the ICC issued arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant. Biden rescinded the sanctions against the court.
Last week, the House voted to approve sanctions against the court in response to the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant, but it is not clear whether the measure will get the necessary 60 votes in the Senate to pass.
Nevertheless, Trump’s executive order signals that his administration will aggressively fight the ICC over this issue.Trump also greenlit deportation proceedings against foreigners in the US who support terrorism, signaling a tougher stance on virulently anti-Israel and antisemitic protests on college campuses and in the streets.
This executive order states that “It is US policy to protect its citizens from aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten national security, espouse hateful ideology, or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes.”
Finally, a more aggressive position toward international organizations was evident not only in the executive order pulling the US out of the World Health Organization (not related to Israel) but also in the decision to pause for 90 days and review all US foreign development assistance, including UNRWA. US aid to the aid agency is currently suspended until March.
This executive order, called “Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid,” states that the US “foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and are, in many cases, antithetical to American values. They serve to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries.”
By this measure, UNRWA is squarely in the crosshairs.
The executive orders Trump signed on Monday indicate that on issues such as the settlements, the UN, and the ICC, US policies under the new president will be more in line with Israel’s interests than under the Biden administration.
Yet his blunt realism – “it’s not our war” – should remind Jerusalem that while it has a friend in the White House and though US and Israeli interests often overlap, they are not identical.
This article was originally published at www.jpost.com
