What could a new Trump presidency mean for Netanyahu?

In 2021, former United States President Donald Trump told Israeli journalist Barak Ravid that his relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu had suffered after the Israeli prime minister had congratulated Joe Biden on winning the 2020 American presidential election.

“F*** him,” Trump said in the interview.

“I liked Bibi,” Trump said at the time. “I still like Bibi … But I also like loyalty.”

“Trump saw this as a betrayal,” Eyal Lurie-Pardes of the Middle East Institute, told Al Jazeera. “Trump has been very supportive of Israel but critical of Netanyahu, attacking him for [October 7] happening under his watch and as being weaker than ever.

“Trump doesn’t like to pick a losing partner,” he added.

Now, as the prospects of Republican presidential nominee Trump – who led over Biden in national polls before he dropped out of the US election this weekend – returning to the White House after November’s election increases, Netanyahu has been working hard to return to Trump’s good graces, according to analysts. The two enjoyed a close relationship during Trump’s tenure as American president, and the Israeli leader has been making overtures to rekindle their personal relationship.

“Netanyahu, going back to the 1980s, has been building an alliance with the Republican Party, with the right, and with Christian Evangelicals,” Zachary Lockman, professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University, told Al Jazeera. “This is who he sees as his most durable allies because the Democratic Party, he understands correctly, includes elements increasingly critical of Israel, and Biden is a relic of the past.”

The Israeli prime minister would often heap praise on Trump, describing him in 2020 as “the best friend Israel has ever had in the White House”.