昨晚，以色列举行了选举，以确定该国的下一任总理，现任总理本雅明·内塔尼亚胡(Benjamin Netanyahu)已经占据了这个席位超过13年。但事情似乎没有按他的方式发展。当地报纸据报道，截至周三下午早些时候(东部时间)，以色列历史上任期最长的总理落后于他的竞争对手中间派本尼·甘茨一个席位。
这对美国总统唐纳德·特朗普来说是个坏消息，他一直在努力与内塔尼亚胡建立伙伴关系，并以此为基础开展连任竞选。特朗普和内塔尼亚胡的海报一起挂在特拉维夫和耶路撒冷，选举前特朗普正式承认戈兰高地是以色列的，白宫举行了庆祝活动。就在选举前几天，特朗普在推特上表示，他正在与以色列制定一项新的共同防御法案。
然而，最近几周，总统的注意力一直集中在伊朗，一些分析家推测伊朗可能伤害了内塔尼亚胡。特朗普希望会见伊朗总统哈桑·鲁哈尼(Hassan Rouhani)，因为以色列总理坚称伊朗正在发展其核计划，这可能损害内塔尼亚胡的信誉，白宫拒绝公开支持内塔尼亚胡最近吞并约旦河谷作为以色列一部分的决定也是如此。
当今天被问及局势时，总统与内塔尼亚胡保持距离。“我们与以色列国的关系，”他说。
那么接下来会发生什么呢？很多困惑。
甘茨还没有宣布彻底的胜利，但他似乎已经准备好了。“我保证今晚开始修复以色列社会的旅程，”他在周二晚些时候告诉他的支持者。“我们将在我们的公民中寻找共同点，并背诵共同的祈祷文。我们是一个民族和一个社会，”他说。"两极分化和分裂现在已经过去了。"
内塔尼亚胡还发表了一篇缓和的演讲，他拒绝承认这场势均力敌的比赛。他说:“以色列需要一个强大、稳定、犹太复国主义的政府，致力于以色列成为犹太人民的民族国家。”。
下周，赢得议会席位的政党领导人将会见以色列总统鲁文·里夫林，他将任命一位他认为最成功的领导人，并开始组建联合政府。但是，如果选举中没有明确的获胜者，并且不能轻易建立联盟，那么我们可能会看到议员和两位领导人进行数周的谈判，看看谁会胜出。
不管怎样，这对于内塔尼亚胡来说都不是一个明显的胜利，他目前正因欺诈指控接受调查，并将在10月份面临预审。对于特朗普、俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京、波兰总统安杰伊·杜达和英国首相鲍里斯·约翰逊等一批边境封闭、反全球主义的领导人来说，这也可能是一个不好的信号。
ISRAELI ELECTIONS COULD SPELL TROUBLE FOR NETANYAHU, TRUMP
Last night Israel held elections to determine the country's next prime minister, a seat that incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu has held onto for more than 13 years. But things don't seem to be going his way. Local papers report that the longest-serving prime minister in Israeli history is trailing his competitor, centrist Benny Gantz, by one seat as of early Wednesday afternoon (Eastern Time).
This is bad news for U.S. President Donald Trump, who has worked hard to build a partnership with Netanyahu, upon which the prime minister ran his reelection campaign. Posters of Trump and Netanyahu together hang in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and ahead of the election Trump officially recognized the Golan Heights as Israel's, which was marked by a celebration at the White House. Just days before the election, Trump tweeted that he was working on a new mutual defense bill with Israel.
In recent weeks, however, the president's attention has been on Iran, which some analysts speculate may have hurt Netanyahu. Trump's wish to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani as the Israeli prime minister insisted that Iran was developing its nuclear program potentially hurt Netanyahu's credibility, as did the White House's refusal to publicly support Netanyahu's recent decision to annex the Jordan Valley as part of Israel.
When asked today about the situation, the president distanced himself from Netanyahu. "Our relationship is with the state of Israel," he said.