Golan Heights
\nAs 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 on Iran, but were not giving up on their hero in the White House.
\nUnder the US-Iran agreement announced earlier this week to end the Middle East war, fighting is also supposed to cease between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
\nIn Israel, the agreement is widely viewed as undermining the country\u2019s security and its acceptance by Washington as a strategic failure for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
\nIn 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 proved popular with residents.
\nBut for those living in the settlement, named in homage to the US president, the agreement was not cause to completely abandon their community\u2019s namesake.
\n\u201cWe give President Trump the benefit of the doubt that he is making the right decisions for America, and that he is also trying to help his allies \u2014 and, of course, the most important ally in the region is Israel,\u201d said 32-year-old Shlomo Schlechter.
\nBut \u201cwe understand that American and Israeli interests do not always go hand in hand,\u201d the law student said, adding that he still trusted the US president to make the right decision as the deal\u2019s details are hashed out over the next 60 days.
\nLike other residents AFP spoke to, Schlechter said he did not expect the deal to hold, nor Israel to withdraw from Lebanon.
\n\u201cWe hope that President Trump will remain firm, and when he sees that the Iranians are not serious \u2014 as I expect will happen \u2014 he will return and know how to deal with them with a heavy hand, as he knows how to do,\u201d he told media.<\/p>\n
\u2018Very thankful\u2019
\nFrom Trump Heights, Israeli artillery could be heard pounding its northern neighbour on Friday morning, after four Israeli soldiers were killed the previous night.
\nBy late afternoon, a US official said Israel and Hezbollah had agreed a ceasefire that began at 4:00pm local time (1300 GMT), brokered by US and Qatari mediators following talks with Israel and Iran.
\n\u201cWhen someone does something good for you, you\u2019re not gonna hate them right when they do something you agree a little less with,\u201d Dalia Ben Shabbat, a 38-year-old resident of Trump Heights, told AFP.
\n\u201cRegarding President Trump himself, we\u2019re very thankful for what he\u2019s done for Israel until now,\u201d the architecture student and mother-of-four said.
\nHours before the US-Iran deal was announced earlier this week, Trump excoriated Netanyahu for launching attacks in Lebanon that threatened to derail it.
\n\u201cHe\u2019s a very difficult guy,\u201d Trump said of Netanyahu, \u201cand to be honest with you, he should be very thankful to us for doing this. Because if Iran had a nuclear weapon, Israel wouldn\u2019t be around for two hours.\u201d
\nOn Thursday, US Vice President JD Vance also issued an extraordinary rebuke to Israeli critics of the Iran deal, warning them not to alienate their \u201conly powerful ally\u201d left in the world.
\n\u201cDonald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time, and he happens to be the head of state of the world superpower,\u201d Vance said.
\nBut in Trump Heights, emblazoned with Israeli and US flags, residents didn\u2019t take the comments by the US executive to heart.
\n\u201cIf the person is good, the person is good,\u201d Ben Shabbat said of the US president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Golan Heights 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 on Iran, but were not giving up on their hero in the White House. Under the US-Iran agreement announced earlier this week […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552267,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-552257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n