OBAMA&TRUMP: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE APPROACHES OF THE TWO PRESIDENTS TO THE PALESTINE-ISRAEL CONFLICT

Abstract

The American-style presidential system has its own peculiarities. There are many factors that affect the foreign policy making process in the country. When Barack Obama took office, he created the impression that he wanted to solve the Palestinian-Israeli problem by taking into account the rights of the Palestinians. Hence Palestinian bureaucrats thought that a two-state solution would be achieved under President Obama. However, Israel continued to open new settlements during the long negotiation process, and also organized military operations in Gaza. Relations between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu continued to be tense, especially because of the Iran issue. President Obama's Iran policy has affected US-Israeli relations. Since President Obama did not want to appear to be keeping Israel in the background, he actually made actions and statements that were in the interests of Israel. Therefore, although President Obama was initially seen as pro-Palestinian, the United States continued to vote in favor of Israel in international organizations. US-Israel relations have been updated during the President Trump era. Even during the election campaign, Donald Trump drew attention to the importance he attaches to relations with Israel. After being elected, Trump started to keep his promises to Israel and extinguished the Palestinians' hope for peace. The peace plan called the "Deal of Century" was condemned by Palestinian bureaucrats. Trump's move of the American embassy to Jerusalem is the most pleasing development for Israel. It was seen that President Trump took important steps when Prime Minister Netanyahu was dragged into a political crisis. Therefore, in this study, it was searched whether Obama from the Democrat Party followed a different Palestinian-Israeli policy than Trump from the Republican Party. In fact, it has been concluded that the Palestinians did not gain anything during the two presidential terms, that President Obama was not pro-Palestinian and he just wanted to solve the problem more equitably.