As the sound of Israeli artillery shells echoed around their hilltop homes close to Lebanon, residents of Trump Heights struggled to hide their dismay at the deal to end the war with Iran but were not giving up on their hero in the White House.
Under the US-Iran agreement announced earlier this week to end the Middle East war, fighting is also supposed to cease between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
In Israel, the agreement is widely viewed as undermining the country’s security and its acceptance by Washington as a strategic failure for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In Trump Heights, a community of small prefabricated homes perched on a hilltop just 15 kilometres from the Lebanon border, the deal with Iran has not been popular with residents.
But for those living in the settlement, named in homage to the US president, the agreement was not cause to completely abandon their community’s namesake.
“We trust President Trump to make the right decisions for America and to help his allies, especially the most important ally in the region, Israel,” said 32-year-old Shlomo Schlechter.
But “we understand that American and Israeli interests do not always align,” the law student said, adding that he still trusted the US president to make the right decision as the deal’s details are worked out over the next 60 days.
“We hope that President Trump will remain firm, and when he sees that the Iranians are not serious, as I expect will happen, he will return and know how to deal with them firmly, as he knows how to do,” he said.
From Trump Heights, Israeli artillery pounded its northern neighbour on Friday morning after four Israeli soldiers were killed the previous night.
By late afternoon, a US official said Israel and Hezbollah had agreed a ceasefire that began at 4:00 pm local time (1300 GMT), brokered by US and Qatari mediators following talks with Israel and Iran.
“When someone does something good for you, you’re going to appreciate them even if they later do something you disagree with,” Dalia Ben Shabbat, a 38-year-old resident of Trump Heights, said.
“Regarding President Trump himself, we’re truly thankful for what he’s done for Israel until now,” the architecture student and mother-of-four said.
Hours before the US-Iran deal was announced earlier this week, Trump excoriated Netanyahu for launching attacks in Lebanon that threatened to derail it.
“He’s a very difficult guy,” Trump said of Netanyahu, “and to be honest with you, he should be very thankful to us for doing this deal.” Because if Iran had a nuclear weapon, Israel wouldn’t be around for two hours.”
On Thursday, US Vice President JD Vance also issued an extraordinary rebuke to Israeli critics of the Iran deal, warning them not to alienate their ‘only powerful ally’ left in the world.
“Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment, and he happens to be the head of state of the world superpower,” Vance said.
But in Trump Heights, emblazoned with Israeli and US flags, residents didn’t pay much attention to the comments by the US executive.
“If the person is good, the person is good,” Ben Shabbat said of the US president.
Trump Heights, which sits in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, is an homage to Donald Trump, who in 2019 recognised Israel’s sovereignty over the strategic plateau, making the United States the first and so far only country to do so.
While the community didn’t seem to have fully abandoned the US president, some residents voiced strong disappointment about his deal with Iran.
“This deal is the equivalent of Vichy France making a deal with Nazi Germany,” said one middle-aged man in a wheelchair who declined to be named, referring to France’s World War II government that collaborated with the Nazis to send Jews to concentration camps.
A teenager who said he had been out of school for the last two months because of the war with Iran said he felt the deal didn’t take into account Israelis living near Lebanon.
“If there is a ceasefire with Iran, people in central and south Israel will stop receiving Iranian missiles, but here in the north we will still have Hezbollah rockets,” he said.
