As President Trump sets sail to the Mideast, signs are that he’s reviving President Obama’s strategy of showing “daylight” between Israel and America. Political opponents of Prime Minister Netanyahu are crowing that Israel’s “Mr. Republican” is now a White House pariah. Mr. Trump’s detractors relish a purported crisis with an ally. The Times’s Thomas Friedman praises the president for finally realizing that “Netanyahu is not our friend.” 

Some events might suggest so, but, we say, take care. Mr. Trump surprised Israel on Tuesday by ending America’s bombing campaign in Yemen. Sure enough, today Israelis across the country ran to shelter as the Houthis launched a ballistic missile. An American anti-missile battery intercepted it. “We will respond forcefully,” the defense minister, Israel Katz, said. With significant firepower nearby, America will coordinate its retaliation with Israel. 

Meanwhile, Secretary Hegseth’s planned weekend Israel visit is now off. Yet the secretary “did not cancel his trip to Israel,” the Pentagon protested in a statement Friday. He “very much looks forward to visiting our ally Israel soon.” Mr. Hegseth will join the president’s top national security team on next week’s trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Mr. Trump, in contrast to his first term’s first foreign trip, will this time skip the Jewish state.

According to numerous reports, the president is planning to cut a security deal with Saudi Arabia separately from a treaty with Israel. Yet, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who has extensive connections in Riyadh and Israel, is reportedly quietly advising the president’s team on advancing the Abraham Accords. Expect “a lot of announcements very, very shortly” on that front, the Mideast envoy, Steven Witkoff, told Israel supporters at the White House Monday.    

Mr. Witkoff, who is off to Oman Sunday to meet Tehran diplomats, has raised eyebrows in Israel over confusing statements on a nuclear deal’s terms. Diplomacy is “a more permanent solution to that crisis than any other alternative” that “neocons” are pushing, he told Breitbart today. Yet, Mr. Trump is clear: “Blow them up nicely, or blow them up viciously,” he told broadcaster Hugh Hewitt, adding Iran must “dismantle” its nuclear infrastructure.  

Much has been made about Ambassador Huckabee, who said today that a roadmap to feeding Gazans is American, not “an Israeli plan.” Yet he detailed at what Israelis have long hinted: America will lead teams to disseminate aid, while Israeli troops maintain their safety. Allegations that Israel opposes Gaza aid are “absolutely false,” he said, adding that both America and Israel need to ensure “that Hamas doesn’t steal that aid.”

The press has drummed up an Israel Army Radio report, based on unidentified sources, claiming that Messrs. Trump and Netanyahu have “broken off talks” between them. Yet, the Israeli premier’s closest adviser, Ron Dermer, consulted at the White House with the president and his entire team Thursday. “It’s reckless & irresponsible for press to allege that @POTUS and @IsraeliPM are not getting along,” Mr. Huckabee writes on X. 

Mr. Trump acts like he can personally sway Mideast allies and even foes like the Islamic Republic. The war that Hamas launched in 2023 is raising regional anti-Israel sentiments. Arab leaders hesitate to openly support the Jewish state. The reluctance of the president, as he cultivates Mideast ties, to visit Israel might make sense then. All the more reason for him to dispel the idea that “daylight” is showing between Jerusalem and Washington.