The profiles of the individuals chosen by the elected American president to implement his Middle Eastern policy indicate unwavering support for the Israeli government and an aggressive stance towards the Iranian regime.
Marco Rubio as Secretary of State, Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense, Mike Huckabee as Ambassador to Israel, Elise Stefanik as Ambassador to the United Nations, Michael Waltz as National Security Advisor, and Steven Witkoff as Special Envoy to the Middle East… The personalities selected by Donald Trump to lead the United States’ Middle Eastern policy during his second term “suggest a very pro-Israeli and aggressive orientation towards Iran,” writes the Lebanese daily L’Orient-Le Jour.
These are individuals “deeply connected to Jewish and pro-Israeli communities,” explains the American Jewish magazine Forward. “It’s like the dream team of the Israeli right,” adds Israeli journalist and author Yaakov Katz in the pages of the Jerusalem Post. “This isn’t just a group of people who are simply pro-Israel in a basic sense, but passionate supporters of the most controversial aspects of the agenda of the Israeli right.”
Annexation of the West Bank
As The Wall Street Journal writes, “Donald Trump’s victory has given new momentum to some members of the Israeli right-wing government for the annexation of the occupied West Bank.” “2025 will be the year of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,” declared this week Israeli Finance Minister and head of civil affairs in the West Bank, Bezalel Smotrich, classified as far-right.
One of the most fervent proponents of such annexation is Mike Huckabee. The former governor of Arkansas, whom Trump has designated as the future ambassador to Israel, is an evangelical Christian with a “messianic appetite for Jewish supremacy in the West Bank,” writes the Israeli newspaper Ha’Aretz.
This appointment parallels that of Yechiel Leiter as Israel’s ambassador to the United States. A close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “he is a long-time advocate for the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank,” explains the outlet Middle East Eye.
Moreover, “Huckabee is not the only supporter of the Israeli far-right” in Trump’s future team, explains The Washington Post. The newspaper mentions Pete Hegseth, who has previously called for the construction of a Jewish temple on the site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and praised the Israeli military campaign to “pile up corpses” in Gaza. As for Elise Stefanik, who made her name during hearings in front of Congress regarding American university presidents who tolerated pro-Palestinian demonstrations on their campuses, she is described as a “staunch supporter of Israel.”
Meanwhile, L’Orient-Le Jour describes Steven Witkoff in another article as a “fervent pro-Israeli.” He notably referred to Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before the U.S. Congress in July as a “spiritual moment.”
Abraham Accords
This composition raises fears among Palestinians. The makeup of Trump’s Middle East team for this second term shows that “he is deeply immersed in hostility towards the Palestinian people,” according to the Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam. However, the American magazine The Atlantic notes that Mike Huckabee emphasized in an interview with Israeli military radio—his first since the news of his nomination as the U.S. ambassador to Israel—that his role would be to “implement President Trump’s policy.”
The article continues: “Even though Trump’s evangelical allies like Huckabee would be thrilled to see Israel annex large parts of the West Bank, the president’s partners in the Middle East […] firmly oppose such an initiative—and managed to block it during the previous Trump administration as a condition of the Abraham Accords.”
In this context, the Jerusalem Post explains that the Trump administration, driven by its leader’s desire to “stop the wars,” might very well “propose a peace plan that recognizes a Palestinian state without the evacuation of settlements.” Here, “the Israeli right would find it harder to explain how such a plan could be anti-Israeli.”
Fight Against Iran
For Mark Dubowitz, who leads the American conservative think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies, support for the annexation of the West Bank could alienate Arab countries, as reported by the Wall Street Journal: “Whatever Smotrich’s plans regarding the West Bank under the new Trump administration, they will likely be of secondary importance compared to broader Arab-Israeli normalization and the […] fight against Iran.”
This is another strong line of Donald Trump’s “dream team” for the Middle East. But on this issue too, nothing is certain. “Trump’s entourage is developing strategic plans” aimed at “the current ruling structure of Iran,” revealed “high-ranking Israeli sources” to the daily Israel Hayom. This would serve to “cut funding to groups supported by Tehran that target Israeli interests, thereby neutralizing their operational capabilities.”
As Israel Hayom points out, Michael Waltz “has always advocated for a tougher approach towards Iran,” while Pete Hegseth “has previously argued for granting Israel some autonomy over managing Iranian nuclear capabilities.”
However, The New York Times revealed that businessman Elon Musk, a close associate of Donald Trump, met this week in New York with Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, “for a discussion on how to de-escalate tensions between Iran and the United States,” according to Iranian sources.
“Overall, anything is possible with Trump,” explains Ali Vaez, director of the International Crisis Group for Iran, to The New York Times.
