legislative

In a social media post ahead of Israel’s October 27 election, Trump calls Netanyahu a ‘Strong, Brave, and Brilliant’ leader.

United States President Donald Trump has issued an endorsement of Israel’s incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing a close race in parliamentary elections scheduled for October 27.

In a post on Truth Social on Sunday, Trump praised the Israeli leader for being an ally of the US in its war on Iran. He added that he was giving his “Complete and Total Endorsement” to Netanyahu.

“BIBI NETANYAHU WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!” Trump wrote.

The US president’s backing comes nine days before the Israeli election — and after speculation that it might not come at all.

Trump had refused to endorse Netanyahu earlier this month, when asked repeatedly about the Israeli leader’s job performance in an interview with Time magazine.

Instead, when pressed by his interviewer, Trump avoided the subject, shifting the focus instead to his own popularity or security in the Middle East.

The two leaders have met more than a half dozen times since January 2025, but there have been reports of disagreements, including over the war against Iran and other conflicts.

In June, Trump acknowledged calling Netanyahu “f***ing crazy” in a phone conversation where he expressed frustration about Israel’s attacks on Lebanon.

Trump had reportedly asked Netanyahu not to take further action in Lebanon, in an apparent attempt to preserve a short-lived April ceasefire with Iran.

The two leaders had jointly launched a war against Iran on February 28, but the conflict has cost Trump domestic support.

The war has upended the global oil and gas supply, with no clear end in sight.

A Pew Research Center poll found this month that roughly two-thirds of US voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of the war, which has driven up consumer fuel prices and raised concerns about draining military stockpiles.

Trump’s Republican Party is facing a critical midterm election on November 3 that will decide whether it maintains control of the US Congress, as well as other key state and local offices.

Experts have speculated that Trump’s prior reticence to endorse Netanyahu may have come from public perception that Israel may have coaxed the US into the war.

Netanyahu’s Likud Party and its far-right coalition are also facing the prospect of losing the October contest to an opposition bloc led by Yashar party head Gadi Eisenkot.

In his endorsement on Sunday, Trump said it was only a matter of time before Iran would have attacked both the US and Israel.

The war, Trump argued, had already left Iran “systematically destroyed, both Militarily and Financially, and unless they change their ways, rapidly, we will soon finish the job”.

“If Israel has the wrong Leader, which would be anyone other than Bibi, America will have to do this work ourselves, and I am not inclined to do so,” Trump wrote.

“Bibi Netanyahu has been Strong, Brave, and Brilliant in the face of tremendous opposition, including that coming from even Israel, itself.”

November 2026 vote delayed and joint presidential and legislative elections set for next year, president says in decree.

President Mahmoud Abbas has postponed what would have been the first Palestinian elections in nearly 20 years, issuing a decree to further delay voting for the Palestinian Legislative Council for almost another year.

According to the decree, legislative elections planned for next month will be combined with a presidential vote and set for September 11, 2027, Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, said on Saturday.

The long-awaited parliamentary vote was originally set for November 28, with a presidential election expected in early 2027.

The decree came after a committee of top Palestinian officials met on Saturday morning to discuss postponing the vote.

The Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) Executive Committee, which Abbas heads, said in a statement that conditions in occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip were not conducive to holding elections, noting that Israel had not allowed election materials or international observers to enter Gaza.

Israeli interference, including military raids, settlement expansion and settler violence in the occupied West Bank, has made a fair vote in November impossible, Wafa reported.

The agency also cited Israel’s systemic withholding of Palestinian tax revenues and its restrictions on electoral candidates and international observers entering Gaza and occupied East Jerusalem, as reasons.

As for Gaza, it said that the lack of progress on reconstruction and on deploying an international stabilisation force factored into the decision as well.

The postponement leaves entrenched Palestinian leaders unchallenged and threatens to further erode the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) credibility among Palestinians and donor countries who fund it.

On Friday, the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gideon Saar, accused Abbas of “fooling the international community” by planning to cancel promised elections.

A source told the AFP news agency on Thursday that Palestinian factions, including Abbas’s Palestinian National Liberation Movement – also known as the Fatah party – had agreed to hold a “national dialogue” before legislative elections and that they wanted to postpone the vote.

The last parliamentary elections held in the Palestinian territories were in 2006, when Hamas defeated Fatah, which dominates the PA. The split led to factional fighting and Hamas later seized control of Gaza.

Ninety-year-old Abbas won the last presidential election in 2005. His term should have ended in 2009, but he has ruled by decree since then. In June, he signed a decree calling for the presidential election to be held in early 2027.