Trump and Netanyahu See National Security Through an Ethno-Racial Lens

posted on: Dec 17, 2025

By: Ghassan Rubeiz / Arab America Contributing Writer

The White House’s new National Security Strategy document is deeply perturbing. The document emphasizes power, identity, and Western ways of living rather than human rights and harmony among nations. It warns that Europe faces erosion of its civilization unless it elects more “patriotic” nationalist right-wing parties committed to stemming immigration.

It claims that “over the long term, it is more than plausible that within a few decades at the latest, certain NATO members will become majority non-European.” In a recent essay, Thomas Friedman warns that “[w]hen protecting ‘Western civilization’ — with a focus on race and Judeo-Christian faith — becomes the centerpiece of US national security, the biggest threat becomes uncontrolled immigration into America and Western Europe — not Russia or China.”

Friedman draws a parallel between  Trump’s “civilizational” perspective and those of Israel’s ultra-nationalist Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, led by Itamar Ben-Gvir. Friedman writes: “I cannot remember another time in the past 40 years when I have traveled around America, and the world, and found more people asking the same question: ‘Whose country is this anyway?’ Or as Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right nationalist Israeli minister, put it in his political banner ads [in Hebrew] during Israel’s 2022 election: ‘Who is the landlord here?'”

The parallels are indeed unmistakable. Both leaders frame demographics as the primary security threat. Not hostile nations; not ethnic cleansing; instead, the demographic “replacement” of the homeland’s rightful owners. Both deploy “civilization” as a concept: Trump warns of Europe’s “civilizational erasure” through immigration; Netanyahu’s coalition warns of threats to Israel’s Jewish character. Both likewise deploy the language of ownership: Ben-Gvir wants right-wing, religiously conservative Israelis to be the “landlords”, while Trump’s “invasion” rhetoric implies America is rightfully owned by white conservative Christians. Both have changed the terms of national security doctrine from geopolitical strategy to identity-based warfare. Confronting China and Russia are no longer priorities for Washington; border security is no longer central for Tel Aviv. Both celebrate far-right nationalist movements abroad, aligning themselves with Europe and South America’s “patriotic parties”.

These priorities matter. For the US, the new strategy means ignoring the real threats to America’s population: obscene levels of income inequality; crippling national debt; an ailing health care system; the global drift toward authoritarianism; climate change; nuclear proliferation; and so on. For Israel, far-right policies mean abandoning the pursuit of common ground in the search for peace, and avoiding the root cause of the conflict: territorial occupation. It also means postponing the inevitable. At some point, Israel will have to face the reality that both nations, Arab and Jewish, must share resources and cope with regional threats together. Likewise, the United States cannot indefinitely ignore the real and mounting threats to American society.

Ghassan Rubeiz is the former Middle East Secretary of the World Council of Churches. Earlier, he taught psychology and social work in his country of birth, Lebanon, and later in the United States, where he currently lives. He has contributed to political commentary for the past twenty years and has delivered occasional public talks on peace, justice, and interfaith topics. You can reach him at rubeizg@gmail.com

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Arab America. The reproduction of this article is permissible with proper credit to Arab America and the author.

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