As news emerged on Wednesday that the Democratic Party had won a landslide victory, regaining control of the US Congress, Israeli politicians, journalists and experts warned of the results’ grave implications for Israel‘s national security, pointing to the declining standing of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the US.
Former Israeli prime minister Yair Lapid, who was re-elected to parliament last week as part of the centre-right Together alliance, said the US election results had “eliminated” any possibility of forming a unity government with Netanyahu.
“Israel cannot afford for him to remain prime minister. It endangers security, it endangers democracy, it will crush us in the world,” Lapid said on X on Wednesday morning.
Recent Israeli reports indicated that US President Donald Trump is applying pressure on Netanyahu and the Israeli opposition leaders to form a unity government that will exclude extremists in order to advance his Middle Eastern policies.
Yair Golan, leader of the left-wing Democrats alliance, also described Netanyahu as a threat to Israel’s security in the wake of the US election results, which saw progressive Democrats, including Michigan Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed – the first Muslim elected to the US Senate – win races across the country.
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Golan said Netanyahu has become “toxic” in the US, both within the Democratic party and the Republican party, adding that if the Israeli prime minister continues to rule it could “lead Israel onto a path of international sanctions, international isolation, and a collision with the United States”.
‘Netanyahu’s continued tenure is an immediate danger to our special relationship with the United States’
– Amir Tibon, Haaretz
According to Golan, the most left-leaning leader of the Zionist Israeli opposition, Israel is now facing a choice between a “boycotted, backward, and isolated” country led by Netanyahu, or “a strong, advanced, free, and secure Israel”.
“Netanyahu lost the elections. He is dangerous to Israel,” Golan said on X, adding “we have no time to waste. We must form a change government now.”
The Democrats MP Gilad Kariv echoed the position of his party leader on Wednesday, ruling out a unity government with Netanyahu’s Likud party.
Kariv said on X that “anyone who is still talking this morning about unity with Netanyahu does not understand the results of the elections in Israel and does not understand the results of the elections in the United States.”
‘US-Israel relations comes to an end’
Progressive US Democrats like Sayed, who have been calling for an end to military aid to Israel over its genocide in Gaza, are viewed by Israeli US affairs experts and journalists as a threat to Israel’s very existence.
On Wednesday, former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni, a fierce critic of Netanyahu, said that the prime minister can no longer “preserve the legitimacy of the existence of the state of the Jewish people, or our right to defend ourselves, in the face of the views of some of the newly elected officials”.
‘An era of half a century in US-Israel relations, as we have known it, comes to an end’
– Michael Oren, former Israeli diplomat
Gili Cohen, the diplomatic correspondent of Israel’s Kan 11, said the US electoral results are “not only a defeat for President Donald Trump, but also for Israel’s standing” in the US, as the much-needed American military aid is now on the balance.
Amir Tibon, a journalist at the Israeli left-wing newspaper Haaretz, described the election results as “a political earthquake” with grave consequences for Israel.
“Netanyahu’s continued tenure is an immediate danger to our special relationship with the United States,” he wrote on X, adding that the prime minister had become “toxic” not only within the Democratic Party but also among Republicans, some of whose leaders are now blaming him for their defeat.
On Wednesday, Trump acknowledged that the US-Israel war on Iran, launched in February under pressure from Netanyahu, played a role in his party’s defeat.
“If Israel wants to start rebuilding its very poor standing in the US, it must part ways with Netanyahu,” Tibon said, adding that a failure to do so could lead “to very dangerous places”.
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The Democrats’ landslide victory also raised concerns among right-wing Israeli politicians and commentators.
Journalist Ariel Kahana told Radio 103FM that “Israel suffered a very serious blow” on Tuesday’s elections, as Israel “was on the ballot”.
“Netanyahu is a burden on Israel,” Kahana said.
Political analyst Kobby Barda of the Jewish People Policy Institute think tank said that Iran was the “big winner” of the US elections, while Netanyahu was the “huge loser”.
“The face of Israel’s government can’t be Netanyahu anymore,” right-winger Barda said, citing his unpopularity rates in the US.
Michael Oren, a former Israeli diplomat, warned that the triumphs of people like Sayed, who he called “a venomously anti-Israel candidate” and “antisemitic”, could lead to catastrophic ramifications for Israel.
Oren warned that “the halt of military aid may be only the beginning”, saying that intelligence and military systems sharing with the US, entry visas for Israelis and supplies of essential military components were all now at risk. He added that US sanctions against Israel were also a possibility.
“Thus, an era of half a century in US-Israel relations, as we have known it, comes to an end,” Oren said, adding that “what lies ahead is clouded in uncertainty”.