Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza
US President Donald Trump has sent shockwaves through his country and abroad, not least in the Middle East, in the first month of his second term as he has launched headlong into a bold and often controversial policy agenda.
Israel, among the US’s closest allies, is one of the few places that has overwhelmingly welcomed the new president across the political spectrum. Ultranationalist and religious ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government heralded his arrival as a divine miracle. Leading centrist opposition politicians said it was a moment to pursue major regional diplomatic initiatives in their country’s favour, including containing arch enemy Iran and normalising ties with Saudi Arabia.
The National spoke to Israeli security and policy experts to see what they think Mr Trump's first month portends for the country, where the focus of the past month has been the fragile Gaza ceasefire with Hamas.
Former Israeli ambassador to the US and deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon was optimistic about Mr Trump's second term. “I believe that when it comes to foreign affairs, especially the Middle East and Israel, we see a much more experienced and seasoned president than he was in his first term,” he said.
“I think that this time, he has very coherent views and objectives and also has a very tight crew who see the same way as he does. So in that respect, he would like to finish what he started in the first term, particularly regarding the Abraham Accords.” The 2020 US-brokered accords established diplomatic ties between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco, but Mr Trump also wants Saudi Arabia and Israel to establish relations.
Tamir Hayman, executive director of Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies and former head of Israel’s military intelligence directorate, described the Trump administration's first month as “very disruptive”.
“It seems all of the basic assumptions regarding the geopolitical solutions in the Middle East have suffered enormous disruption that could spiral things out of control if not channelled correctly, not just in Israel but across the Middle East,” Mr Hayman said. However, if managed in the right manner, there could be a “new energy boost in the region from the disruption. "There is no plan, only vision, momentum and energy, and we need to navigate it," he said.
“The good news is Saudi Arabia,” he added. “It seems like it is the most important state in the Middle East for President Trump. It seems like he is eager and willing to create a new form of relationship between Israel, the US and Saudi Arabia.”
All the experts The National spoke to agreed that one of the most complex issues facing the new administration is achieving a degree of calm in the Israel-Palestine conflict, which has been in a state of deadly and intractable escalation since the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, which triggered the Gaza war. “When it comes to Palestinians, as usual, this is the most complicated issue when it comes to the details,” Mr Ayalon said.
Talking about Mr Trump’s repeated desire to see Gazans removed from the strip to allow for reconstruction, with no apparent right of return afterwards, Mr Ayalon said it was a “very far-reaching, out-of-the box plan” that has spurred Arab states to come up with their own proposals. “I would say he's really rocking the boat, and I think in a good way,” he said. “If this chaos is instrumental, so be it.”
Lianne Pollak-David, a former member of Israeli teams negotiating with Palestinians and co-founder of the new Coalition for Regional Security, which includes more than 100 senior Israeli figures that seek to enhance Israel's security by advancing a regional deal, was keen to hear new solutions proposed by Arab states.
She said that while the relocation of Gazans willing to leave the strip should be an option in the future, Israel needs to “realise that the vast majority of the Gazans are not willing and that nobody is going to force them out".
“For that vast majority of Gazans, we need to find practical solutions, and we all are very much looking forward to hearing what will come out of the Arab League meeting expected in the beginning of March,” she said.
All three experts said Mr Trump’s single-mindedness could create difficulties for Mr Netanyahu, who leads a coalition with many ministers deeply opposed to any settlement with Palestinians, who want Israel to continue the Gaza war and to seize the moment to settle more Palestinian land. Mr Hayman said the US President was likely to pursue his aims regardless of the domestic fallout in Israel.
“I think he has only one goal: that he is the one who will bring peace to the Middle East by ensuring stability,” he said. “He’s in search of the shortest route to that vision. If the shortest route crosses the interests of ultra-right or ultra-left in Israel it doesn't really get into his calculations. He can run over the right wing if he wants to strike a deal with Saudi Arabia.
“Let’s take another example. He viewed the truce [between Israel and Hamas] as the shortest way to reach some form of stability in Gaza. If he can be convinced that the [upcoming] second phase of the deal will prolong that achievement then he will increase the pressure on Israel to make more concessions to achieve the second phase. It doesn’t matter to him that it contradicts [his far-right finance minister] Bezalel Smotrich and [National Security Minister] Itamar Ben-Gvir. He trusts Netanyahu as a shrewd politician to manage that.”
Ms Pollak-David said that given Mr Trump’s ambitions for a new regional order, “it may be that the way the Israeli political coalition is arranged today may have to change”.
“The problem right now that we have in Israel is that the current political coalition simply does not represent the sentiment of the vast majority of the public. All the polls are showing it … this is the tragedy that we have at the moment.”
Mr Hayman hoped that Israel would take seriously any initiatives put forward by the Arab world to reach a settlement if it wants to secure a new, transformative regional order. “If there’s something that I’ve learnt to appreciate after October 7, it’s declarations by Arab leaders. We’ve come to learn that statements are important in the Arab world. If someone declares his vision and main interest, he probably means it,” he said.
“From the beginning of the war, if you’ve been hearing and listening to what [Saudi Crown Prince] Mohammed bin Salman is saying, he is escalating his demands on the Palestinian component in future Israeli normalisation. He is urging a state. He is not speaking for a general vision or horizon for two states."
Mr Hayman called on Israel’s leadership to make sure the country keeps abreast of Mr Trump’s agenda. "To do that, make sure that our visions are aligned, and secondly, get a common assessment of the situation with the people in the inner circle that surround Trump,” he said.
Ad Astra
Director: James Gray
Stars: Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones
Five out of five stars
Breast cancer in men: the facts
1) Breast cancer is men is rare but can develop rapidly. It usually occurs in those over the ages of 60, but can occasionally affect younger men.
2) Symptoms can include a lump, discharge, swollen glands or a rash.
3) People with a history of cancer in the family can be more susceptible.
4) Treatments include surgery and chemotherapy but early diagnosis is the key.
5) Anyone concerned is urged to contact their doctor
PROFILE OF HALAN
Started: November 2017
Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen and Mohamed Aboulnaga
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport and logistics
Size: 150 employees
Investment: approximately $8 million
Investors include: Singapore’s Battery Road Digital Holdings, Egypt’s Algebra Ventures, Uber co-founder and former CTO Oscar Salazar
BRAZIL%20SQUAD
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Cinco in numbers
Dh3.7 million
The estimated cost of Victoria Swarovski’s gem-encrusted Michael Cinco wedding gown
46
The number, in kilograms, that Swarovski’s wedding gown weighed.
1,000
The hours it took to create Cinco’s vermillion petal gown, as seen in his atelier [note, is the one he’s playing with in the corner of a room]
50
How many looks Cinco has created in a new collection to celebrate Ballet Philippines’ 50th birthday
3,000
The hours needed to create the butterfly gown worn by Aishwarya Rai to the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.
1.1 million
The number of followers that Michael Cinco’s Instagram account has garnered.
NATIONAL%20SELECTIONS
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Martin Sabbagh profile
Job: CEO JCDecaux Middle East
In the role: Since January 2015
Lives: In the UAE
Background: M&A, investment banking
Studied: Corporate finance
Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
Brief scores:
Toss: India, opted to field
Australia 158-4 (17 ov)
Maxwell 46, Lynn 37; Kuldeep 2-24
India 169-7 (17 ov)
Dhawan 76, Karthik 30; Zampa 2-22
Result: Australia won by 4 runs by D/L method
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
UK’s AI plan
- AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
- £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
- £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
- £250m to train new AI models
Jeff Buckley: From Hallelujah To The Last Goodbye
By Dave Lory with Jim Irvin
Women’s World T20, Asia Qualifier
UAE results
Beat China by 16 runs
Lost to Thailand by 10 wickets
Beat Nepal by five runs
Beat Hong Kong by eight wickets
Beat Malaysia by 34 runs
Standings (P, W, l, NR, points)
1. Thailand 5 4 0 1 9
2. UAE 5 4 1 0 8
3. Nepal 5 2 1 2 6
4. Hong Kong 5 2 2 1 5
5. Malaysia 5 1 4 0 2
6. China 5 0 5 0 0
Final
Thailand v UAE, Monday, 7am
SPIDER-MAN%3A%20ACROSS%20THE%20SPIDER-VERSE
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The bio:
Favourite film:
Declan: It was The Commitments but now it’s Bohemian Rhapsody.
Heidi: The Long Kiss Goodnight.
Favourite holiday destination:
Declan: Las Vegas but I also love getting home to Ireland and seeing everyone back home.
Heidi: Australia but my dream destination would be to go to Cuba.
Favourite pastime:
Declan: I love brunching and socializing. Just basically having the craic.
Heidi: Paddleboarding and swimming.
Personal motto:
Declan: Take chances.
Heidi: Live, love, laugh and have no regrets.
more from Janine di Giovanni
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%3Cp%3E1.%20Protracted%20but%20less%20intense%20war%20(60%25%20likelihood)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E2.%20Negotiated%20end%20to%20the%20conflict%20(30%25)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E3.%20Russia%20seizes%20more%20territory%20(20%25)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E4.%20Ukraine%20pushes%20Russia%20back%20(10%25)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cem%3EForecast%20by%20Economist%20Intelligence%20Unit%3C%2Fem%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
How to get exposure to gold
Although you can buy gold easily on the Dubai markets, the problem with buying physical bars, coins or jewellery is that you then have storage, security and insurance issues.
A far easier option is to invest in a low-cost exchange traded fund (ETF) that invests in the precious metal instead, for example, ETFS Physical Gold (PHAU) and iShares Physical Gold (SGLN) both track physical gold. The VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF invests directly in mining companies.
Alternatively, BlackRock Gold & General seeks to achieve long-term capital growth primarily through an actively managed portfolio of gold mining, commodity and precious-metal related shares. Its largest portfolio holdings include gold miners Newcrest Mining, Barrick Gold Corp, Agnico Eagle Mines and the NewMont Goldcorp.
Brave investors could take on the added risk of buying individual gold mining stocks, many of which have performed wonderfully well lately.
London-listed Centamin is up more than 70 per cent in just three months, although in a sign of its volatility, it is down 5 per cent on two years ago. Trans-Siberian Gold, listed on London's alternative investment market (AIM) for small stocks, has seen its share price almost quadruple from 34p to 124p over the same period, but do not assume this kind of runaway growth can continue for long
However, buying individual equities like these is highly risky, as their share prices can crash just as quickly, which isn't what what you want from a supposedly safe haven.
The five pillars of Islam
