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This Week:

• Netanyahu-Trump Talks: Unwavering Allies Meet in Florida
• Israel, Greece, Cyprus Sign Military Cooperation Plan
• Israel Recognizes Somaliland
• Short Takes
• Week's Best Tweets

Netanyahu-Trump Talks: Unwavering Allies Meet in Florida

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit this week with President Donald Trump and key Cabinet members demonstrated that all the talk about tension and dissension between Israel and the US was just media hype. The reality is a strong, unwavering alliance determined to build security and peace in the Middle East.

Israeli journalist Amit Segal offers this analysis:

First, Trump made clear that there is no such thing as "rebuilding Gaza" without dismantling Hamas. The quid pro quo still stands. As long as this principle holds, and as long as there is no sign that Trump intends to retreat from it, Israel is not required to withdraw from the areas it currently controls—roughly 58 percent of the Gaza Strip.

And the strikes to degrade Hamas that were "threatening" the cease-fire? I didn’t hear Trump complain; if anything, he was supportive. If they didn’t disarm, Trump said he would "not blame Israel for what will happen," and it will "be terrible."

Second, and perhaps more consequential, is Iran.

That is where the existential threat lies. Here, too, Trump narrowed the daylight between Washington and Jerusalem. His message was clear: even if Iran moves only to restore its ballistic missile program—not its nuclear one—he is prepared to support an Israeli strike.

This matters enormously. Iran has been seeking exactly this path: advancing its non-nuclear military capabilities while staying below the nuclear threshold. Trump is now signaling that this distinction no longer protects Tehran.

However, it is important to acknowledge, he will support an Israeli strike, not participate in one; no midnight hammer is coming down on the ballistic missiles.

Prime Minister Netanyahu praised President Trump, saying:

[H]e has been "extraordinary in his friendship and his support for Israel. His principled positions. His willingness to cut through, to get to the essence of things." The partnership "has allowed us to do enormous things," says Netanyahu.

Israel is recognizing President Trump's unique contributions to the Jewish people by awarding him the Israel Prize, Israel's highest civilian honor. Until now, only Israeli citizens have been eligible to receive this honor, but the Israeli committee that chooses the Israel Prize recipients each year has made an exception on this occasion. The 2026 award ceremony will take place in April, on Israel Independence Day. President Trump was invited to attend in person.

Israel, Greece, Cyprus Sign Military Cooperation Plan

Israel, Greece, and Cyprus have signed a trilateral work plan for military cooperation for 2026, the Jerusalem Post reports.

The plans include joint exercises and training, working groups in various fields, and strategic military dialogue on issues of joint interest. The idea is to establish a unit of 2,500 personnel and potentially a joint rapid-response force as well.

The force would not be a permanent standing unit but one that could be deployed quickly in times of crisis on land, at sea, or in the air, according to the Jerusalem Post.

This deepening cooperation between Israel, Greece, and Cyprus is part of a broader effort to deter Turkey's military and strategic activities in the eastern Mediterranean and to strengthen stability and security for the three countries involved.

Israel Recognizes Somaliland

Israel has officially recognized Somaliland, a self-declared state that neighbors Somalia on the Horn of Africa. As the map above shows, Somaliland is located at the Bab el-Mandeb strait between the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea at the Gulf of Aden. It lies opposite Yemen, from which the Houthis have attacked Israel over the last two years. Bab Al-Mandeb is a chokepoint for global trade and energy.

Matthew Shea and Lahav Harkov report at the Jewish Insider:

Israel’s recognition of Somaliland has stirred unease across parts of the Arab and Muslim world, challenging regional power dynamics as Jerusalem moves first in a strategically sensitive corner of the Horn of Africa.

Israel became the first country to recognize Somaliland on Friday, 34 years after the democratic, pro-Western state declared its independence from Somalia. The move puts Israel at odds with a number of Arab and Muslim nations including Qatar, a major power broker in Somalia and a key mediator in regional conflicts.

...The UAE, in contrast, has nurtured a close relationship with Somaliland, a factor that may have encouraged Jerusalem in its move to recognize the African state, though Abu Dhabi has not yet recognized Somaliland.

Somaliland offers adversaries of Iran and Qatar in the region a strategic footprint in a critical location.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, "The State of Israel plans to immediately expand its relations with the Republic of Somaliland through extensive cooperation in the fields of agriculture, health, technology and economy."

An emergency session of the United Nations was called to debate Israel's recognition of Somiliand, after Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, Jordan, Qatar and China, among many others, signaled their disapproval of the move.

While the United States does not have relations with Somaliland and has no plans to recognize it, the US defended Israel in the Security Council. Tammy Bruce, US deputy ambassador to the United Nations, stated: "Israel has the same right to conduct diplomatic relations as any other sovereign state."

History: In 1960, the British Government granted independence to its protectorate, British Somaliland. Somaliland was recognized as a new state but quickly joined with Somali regions that had been under French and Italian protectorates and in parts of Kenya and Ethiopia to create Somalia, an unstable country that descended into dictatorship, clan-based civil war, and anarchy.

The Somali National Movement was formed in 1981 as a rebel movement that became a separatist movement. After ten years of war, leaders of the SNM and clan elders in Somaliland re-asserted its independence in 1991. No country formally recognized the Republic of Somaliland as an independent state until Israel did so this week.

Somaliland has a constitution, holds democratic elections, and is considered a stable and "partly free" country that integrates traditional and Western forms of self-governance.

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Short Takes

Bryen: A new map vs. the real world

Shoshana Bryen, senior director of the Jewish Policy Center, examines the complicated developments between Israel, Syria, and the US.

JNS: ‘I was paralyzed by fear’: Ex-hostage breaks silence on Hamas sexual violence

In an incredibly brave interview with Israeli television, Romi Gonen details the sexual assaults and psychological torture she endured over 471 days as a hostage in Gaza. Her story is harrowing. By telling it, she delivers a devastating blow to the false narratives and silence with which the world responded to Hamas's use of rape as a weapon of war on and after October 7, 2023. The entire hour-long interview is available, with English subtitles, here.

Jerusalem Post: IDF troops find Gaza tunnel after rain, flood-induced landslides reveal terror site

After heavy rain and flooding exposed a terror tunnel in northern Gaza, IDF Golani Brigade soldiers discovered the site several hundred meters from the border… The tunnel was located approximately 800 meters from the border, near Kibbutz Kissufim, and is entirely within Israel’s side of the Yellow Line. Its existence was not previously known.

Tweets