By Jonathan Saul
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rightist government celebrated on Wednesday after Republican Donald Trump claimed victory in the U.S. presidential election.
The outcome is a relief for Netanyahu’s coalition, which has clashed with President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration over the wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
Congratulating Trump, Netanyahu said the former president was set for “history’s greatest comeback”.
“Your historic return to the White House offers a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America,” he said in a statement.
“This is a huge victory.”
Far-right ministers in the government also welcomed the results.
“Yesssss, God bless Trump,” National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who heads one of two hardline, pro-settler parties in Netanyahu’s coalition, said on X.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who heads the other pro-settler party, said: “God bless Israel, God bless America.”
Israel’s settler leaders also welcomed the election results after Biden’s administration imposed sanctions and asset freezes on settler groups and individuals involved in violence against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
“We expect to have an ally standing unconditionally beside us as we fight the battles that are a war on the entire West,” Israel Ganz, chairman of the main Yesha settler council, said in a statement to Reuters.
(Reporting by Jonathan Saul, Editing by Timothy Heritage and Ros Russell)
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