From the moment he was elected and then entered the White House, Trump issued promises and threats in line with Israel's wishes. But if we check the scoreboard, hell did not break loose on Hamas when the hostages were not freed - not at noon on Saturday, nor at the second or third ultimatum. The "Riviera" remark was a decent joke; even I laughed for a moment. The threats against Iran turned into a slow-moving dialogue with no real horizon. Bonus: the US halted an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities just before it began. As for the Houthis - those small fry whom the Americans vowed to crush - they've now secured a ceasefire with Washington, but will continue firing at Israel.

And now, Trump is negotiating with Saudi Arabia - clearly prioritizing American interests over Israeli ones. Add to that the fact that despite being just an hour's flight from Jerusalem, Trump chose to visit Riyadh on his first trip to the region without a stop in Israel, and the picture is clear: Trump's words carry little weight. Anyone building castles in the sky based on his promises should wait before moving in.

Netanyahu tied Israel's fate to Trump's decisions. And now Trump, just like Biden, has Israel's hands tied (from acting against Iran, for instance), and is pursuing a US foreign policy in which Israel plays no significant role. Oh, and greetings from the customs office: Netanyahu's assumption that a supportive US president would spare Israel from tariffs turned out to be just that, an assumption. Words are one thing, customs duties quite another.

In any case, there's no predicting what Trump will do next. But one thing is certain: he will act according to what suits him and him alone. Israel and Netanyahu will have to accept this, submissively and reverently. You don't mess with Trump, not even in thought. That's how capricious he is. And that's how tightly Israel has tied itself to this one man.

Netanyahu's predicament

Is there any real diplomatic counterweight Netanyahu can now put forward, similar to what he tried with Biden and Obama? Zelenskyy's humiliation at the White House is a warning to anyone who dares challenge Trump. And what will Netanyahu tell the Israeli public? That Trump is bad for Israel? After showering him with praise in the White House as if he were a Righteous Among the Nations? That's a spin too tangled to pull off.

So now, like mice in a gilded cage, we - and especially the prime minister - are subject to the whims of a man whose logic is known only to himself. And if you think things will improve, I have a feeling you're wrong. Next week, the president is expected to visit the region. As usual, he will lay down facts on the ground for Israel. Don't be surprised if one of them is a Palestinian state.

A Palestinian state? From our Trump? From our administration? Well, here's the thing: he's not ours. He belongs to America. In fact, to himself.

He is undoubtedly one of the most flamboyant and entertaining presidents we've ever seen in the media. So at least this: we'll get to laugh a lot, between the tears.

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The manufactured hypocrisy of the progressive left that controls Hollywood and liberal circles is nothing new. Their fondness for (pathetic) useful idiots from among us, who will serve as their mouthpiece to present the argument that there is symmetry between "the Palestinian struggle for liberation from occupation" and the celebration of massacre, rape, burning of children, kidnapping of elderly, women and babies committed by 6000 sadistic madmen on Israeli soil – this fondness is well-known, familiar, and thriving.

It spreads, of course, also in the "liberal" world media (the BBC and its persistent struggle in favor of the "Israeli oppression" narrative as the root of all sin in the Middle East – if not the entire world); and in international diplomatic circles (UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who a week after Oct. 7 went so far as to demand everyone remember that it didn't happen in a "vacuum"); and needless to mention the antisemitic rampage and the incomprehensible eclipse in Western academic circles.

All these, as mentioned, are not new issues, and we have become accustomed to them – to our misfortune and astonishment – since Oct. 7. The win of "No Other Land" for Best Documentary Feature Film at the Oscars is what's called: another cherry on the poisoned whipped cream that the West is glazing over its cake of insensitivity and distortion regarding Israel.

But the automatic vilification of Yuval Abraham, the Israeli director of the film, is just as predictable and known in advance. Abraham deeply believes that "Israel's sins," according to his view, are both the cause and effect of the monstrous massacre, and his Palestinian partners in the film are nothing but decoration for him – no less than for Hollywood – to pin on the ridiculous bow tie that everyone wears at this irrelevant event.

Israel's real internal challenge is not to lash out against Yuval Abraham and find every way to denounce him. Israel's real internal challenge is to insist on a clear formulation of the Israeli narrative, to refine our message when encountering those entities.

We will not succeed in moving Yuval Abraham and his like from their opinions and their path, and there is no need to try to do so, or to distance him from us as if he doesn't exist among us. He and others like him walk among us and enjoy freedom of creation and expression, as well as government funding. In many aspects, this is actually evidence of the strength of Israeli democracy and the true pluralism practiced here.

Israel's real internal challenge is to formulate a reasoned narrative, backed by evidence and decisive facts to present to the world – in other words: Hasbara. Because more than anything else, this film's Oscar win testifies to the devastating failure of Israeli public diplomacy in the past year and a half, and our inability to present the world with media (but also artistic and documentary ones) that would present the Israeli story convincingly and solidly. If we set aside the anger and frustration for a moment – we should see this unfortunate event as another national wake-up call for us to invest in public diplomacy much, much, much more.

And if you will: part of Israeli public diplomacy should be using the example of "No Other Land" to show that Israel, unlike its neighbors – chief among them the Palestinians – knows how to give expression to voices like Abraham's.

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