Trump Backs Netanyahu Ahead Of Israeli Elections. The Two Vowed To ‘Finish The Job’ Of Defeating Iran.

President Donald Trump has formally endorsed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of Israel's legislative elections, which are scheduled to take place on October 27.

"To the Great People of Israel: Bibi Netanyahu has been a Great Warrior Prime Minister, and an even greater Partner for Peace in combatting the Islamic Republic of Iran ... If Israel has the wrong Leader, which would be anyone other than Bibi, America will have to do this work ourselves, and I am not inclined to do so," Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday.

Netanyahu released a video responding to the endorsement, thanking Trump for the support and echoing his message about the strength of their partnership against Iran.

The Israeli prime minister told the president that "there has never been a greater friend of Israel's in the White House" and claimed that "America has been fortunate to have a leader of conviction, of clarity, of courage who faces down this [Iranian] threat to America and to Israel."

Netanyahu's main electoral rival, the Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot, criticized the move by the president, telling students during an event at Tel Aviv University that, while he has great "appreciation" for Trump, "Israel's citizens are the only ones who will decide who the prime minister will be."

Eisenkot also told Israel's Channel 12 that he had "requested that there be no intervention in Israel's internal election."

Recent polls by Israeli media outlets such as Maariv, Channel 12, Channel 13 and KAN News all show Eisenkot's Yashar pulling ahead of Netanyahu's Likud party.

However, none of these polls show either of the two main electoral coalitions, the current governing coalition and the opposition coalition (of which Eisenkot is a part), securing a majority of 61 seats in the Israeli Knesset. Instead, an average of the four surveys show the two blocs are virtually tied at about 51 seats apiece.

Both Trump's initial endorsement and Netanyahu's response implied that the two nations' hostilities against Iran would continue, with the president claiming that Iran had "been systematically destroyed, both Militarily and Financially."

"Unless they change their ways, rapidly, we will soon finish the job," Trump continued.

Netanyahu urged Americans worried about "today's gas prices" to imagine "what will happen if Iran gets nuclear weapons," and vowed that he and Trump would "complete the mission" against Iran.

This escalation of rhetoric by Washington and Tel Aviv comes after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Iranian media on Sunday that Tehran's offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days was still on the table, a proposal which Trump has previously rejected.

The hawkish exchange between Trump and Netanyahu is unlikely to calm already volatile oil markets; Brent Crude, the international benchmark, hit a six-month high of approximately $110 per barrel on Friday.

The Iran conflict has kept global oil prices, as well as domestic fuel prices, consistently high.

Irrespective of Netanyahu and Trump's hawkish mutual praise, a win for the self-styled "Zionist" opposition bloc on October 27 is unlikely to improve prospects for a negotiated settlement to hostilities and the expected consequent fall in global oil prices.

Key figures within the bloc have expressed criticism of Netanyahu's handling of the war, but are broadly just as supportive, if not more supportive, of aggressive action against Tehran.