Russia

Moscow, October 19, 2026. Russian media portray Donald Trump's support for Benyamin Netanyahu as an episode in a more tense US-Israeli relationship than it seems. Vedomosti reports that the US President expressed his "complete and unconditional" support on Sunday, October 18, on Truth Social, just nine days before the October 27 legislative elections. The newspaper cites Bloomberg: the Prime Minister's campaign is suffering from the wars against Iran and in Gaza, and Trump is less popular in Israel than at the beginning of the war with Iran in February. Rival Gadi Eisenkot thanked Trump but told the Twelfth Channel: "Only Israeli citizens will decide who will be the next Prime Minister." Vedomosti adds that US Presidents rarely intervene publicly in foreign elections, while Trump actively supports leaders who are loyal to him.

TASS emphasizes the ambiguity. When asked by Axios, Trump did not say whether he would work with another Prime Minister: "Maybe yes, maybe no. Who wants to take the risk?" He claims to have always wanted to support him, without wanting to do so too soon. The agency relays Axios, which states that no US President had previously publicly supported a candidate in Israel, and cites the phrase about Iran: if Israel has "the wrong leader", i.e. "anyone other than Bibi", America will have to do the job itself, which he is "not inclined" to do. TASS recalls that Trump had refused to support Netanyahu in recent months, which his advisors believed would make his regional agenda easier to implement with another government, and that, according to Israeli media, he privately reproached him for not preventing the October 7, 2023 attack.

In a second dispatch, TASS gives the floor to Netanyahu: there are two years left in the term of "[his] friend President Trump", a time conducive to accomplishing the "main tasks on all fronts". An opposition victory, he says, would lead to a Palestinian state. The latest polls show the coalition and opposition neck and neck, with no majority of 61 seats out of 120.

RT compares two American messages: Trump hails a "great warrior Prime Minister", while Marco Rubio, on Saturday, October 17, called on Israel to crack down on settler violence after the assault on American photojournalist Heidi Levine in the West Bank on Friday, October 16. The media outlet sees conflicting signals, against the backdrop of tensions around Lebanon, Gaza, and Iran.