- Trump's Middle East envoy warned Netanyahu "the president doesn't really like you these days."
- Netanyahu's West Bank annexation plans strained US-Israel relations, journalist Barak Ravid writes in his book.
Former White House envoy to the Middle East Avi Berkowitz warned former Israeli Prime Minister
Ravid's book "Trump's Peace: The Abraham Accords and the Reshaping of the Middle East," details the tumult and breakdown of relations in the US-Israel relationship during the Trump years as both countries' leaders sought to strike deals while advancing their own political interests.
In early 2020, the Trump administration unveiled a "peace plan" for the Middle East. The so-called "Deal of the Century" involved no discussions with Palestinian leaders, and they promptly rejected it.
Critics said it was misleading to call it a "peace plan," dismissing it as little more than a PR stunt for Netanyahu ahead of an election.
"There was no meaningful consultation with the Palestinians over the past two years, and the result is a plan that would be very difficult for any Palestinian leader to accept and defend to their people," Dan Shapiro, the US ambassador to Israel under former President Barack Obama, told Insider at the time.
The plan, crafted by Trump's son-in-law and senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, overwhelmingly favored Israel on a number of contentious issues. Among them, the plan pledged to keep Jerusalem as Israel's undivided capital, recognized Israeli sovereignty over settlements in the occupied West Bank considered illegal under
But, at January 28, 2020, joint appearance unveiling, Netanyahu stunned and rankled Trump by indicating that the deal gave him carte blanche to move forward with aggressive annexation of the West Bank. Even though the peace deal opened the door for Israel to annex up to 30% of the West Bank, Trump and the White House felt rolled by Netanyahu — and successfully pressured Israel to push off its immediate annexation plans.
In late 2016, the outgoing Obama administration allowed a UN vote to proceed that condemned the settlement expansion under Netanyahu. Trump, then the president-elect, opposed that and his administration would later seek even more accommodations of Israel that some ex-diplomats warned could give the US less leverage.
The Trump administration took a number of steps that went against decades of US policy and the longstanding goal of a two-state solution, including moving the US embassy to Jerusalem and declaring that the US no longer viewed West Bank settlements as illegal under international law. The Biden administration has not changed the location of the embassy, but has gone back to traditional US policy by strongly pushing against the expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank.
When then-Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer asked to speak directly to Trump after the unveiling of the day, Berkowitz bluntly informed the ambassador, "the president doesn't like you guys now."
Shortly afterward, Dermer got into an all-out blowup with Kushner after he questioned the White House's trustworthiness, Ravid said, a meeting which ended with Kushner yelling at Dermer and kicking him out of the White House.
Later that year, Berkowitz was dispatched to Israel to directly inform Netanyahu that Trump was unhappy with the Israeli PM over his annexation plans — and wouldn't come to his rescue if they got Netanyahu into hot water, Ravid said.
Netanyahu, Ravid said, was "angry and grouchy" to see Berkowitz, whom he suspected of leaking details about the discord between the two nations to the media.
"It's almost certain Trump will tweet against you," Berkowitz warned, adding that the US also wouldn't come to Israel's defense if the nation's West Bank annexation came under scrutiny in the International Criminal Court.
"The president will criticize such a pro-Israel move so close to the election?" Netanyahu queried Berkowitz, according to Ravid.
"The president doesn't really like you these days," Berkowitz replied. "You will take your best friend and turn him into an enemy."
The once-chummy relationship between the two leaders fully broke down after the 2020 election, when Trump was enraged over Netanyahu acknowledging President Joe Biden's victory. Trump plainly told Ravid, "fuck him" in an interview for the book.