Netanyahu could take steps to end wars after Trump’s win, Middle East officials say

TEL AVIV, Israel — “Congratulations on history’s greatest comeback!” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted.

Officials throughout the Middle East welcomed Donald Trump’s victory — amid anticipation and anxiety across the region over how he could change the course of the wars raging from Gaza to Lebanon and beyond.

Netanyahu, who met and spoke with Trump during his campaign, had been hoping for him to win and will likely take steps to end the wars in Gaza and Lebanon as a gesture to the incoming president, an Israeli official told NPR, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary told NPR that he personally believes that Trump is someone with the ability to close deals. “Maybe a deal between the United States and Iran and a deal for a two-state solution” that would create a Palestinian state, he said.

He added that any U.S.-Iranian agreement and movement on negotiations with Palestinian leadership would create a more positive climate for a cease-fire agreement between Lebanon and Israel. “The Democrats did nothing” to stop the war in Gaza, Makary said. “We hope the Republicans can do better.”

Trump has said he wants the Gaza war to end. Analysts in Israel estimate Trump will give Netanyahu the freedom to end it on Netanyahu’s preferred terms.

Senior Hamas official Basem Naim said Trump’s election is a “private matter for the Americans” but said Palestinians look forward to an “immediate” end to the Gaza war.

In Gaza, some Palestinians fear the war will intensify with Trump in office.

“The strikes and the killing will continue and increase … the relationship between Trump and Netanyahu is strong,” Gaza resident Mohammed Al Hasany said in a market in central Gaza.

In the West Bank, an Israeli settler leader expressed hope that Trump would back an Israeli move to permanently annex the occupied land that Palestinians want for a state — an idea former Trump ambassador to Israel David Friedman promotes in his new book, One Jewish State. Palestinians in the West Bank told NPR they feared that outcome.

Trump could prevent Israel from striking Iran’s nuclear facilities to prevent a regional war, according to a post-election analysis by the Institute for National Security Studies, an Israeli think tank.

Jane Arraf in Beirut, Anas Baba in Gaza, Nuha Musleh in Ramallah and Itay Stern in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.