Tomorrow, the race to the White House will continue with the second stop in the path of the primaries of the leadership of the Republican Party: the Little state of New-Hampshire in frozen New England. At the first stop, held at last week’s caucuses in Midwestern Iowa, former President Donald Trump received over 50% of the votes, making him the party’s expected candidate for the third straight time. All of this, although Trump now faces difficult challenges – more public and media opposition, along with 3 criminal cases open against him in various states. 2 States have ruled out Trump from running for office (a move that could be overturned by the Supreme Court).
But a lot has changed in the last week, especially at the second place. Nikki Haley (former UN ambassador) managed to surprise in Iowa with almost 20% of the vote, just behind Florida Governor Ron de-Santis who started his presidential campaign almost a year ago, and seemed to be a front runner for quite a while. But De-Santis decided to withdraw from the race entirely on Sunday, seeing that public opinion polls did not predict him well in New-Hampshire, or in fact in any other state. De-Santis is a big supporter of Israel, and his young age (45) almost assures us that we will hear from him again in the future.
Upon his withdrawl, De-Santis expressed his principled support of Trump, but we need to see how his voters will act – as now only Haley remains as an environmental candidate that can join in all of Trump’s different opponents. Polls predict Trump will have an advantage over Haley, but Haley has surprised before and has overcome worse polls. A large part of Haley’s campaign revolves around her support for Israel, which she expressed strongly while serving as an ambassador.
The war that is currently taking place in Israel has once again emphasized to us our strategic dependence on the United States, both for the supply of arms, on the global diplomatic front, and as deterrence and means for the use of force against Iran and its proxies. The Elections tomorrow in New-Hampshire may have more impact on Israel’s strategic channels than the general elections in your place of residence. Is it a blessing or a curse? Right now, it’s the reality, and what we have to deal with, and what we should get to know well.
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