Billionaire American investor Bill Ackman on Sunday said that Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich should not serve in Israel’s next government, saying the two far-right politicians had caused enormous damage to the country’s reputation.

The public intervention by the prominent hedge fund manager, who is Jewish, comes just two days before Israel’s general election, in which polls show a tight race between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition and the opposition.

Ackman wrote on X that from the perspective of someone who had an understanding of how Israel was perceived in the United States, “Ben-Gvir and Smotrich have caused Israel enormous reputational damage with their statements and actions”.

The founder of Pershing Square Capital Management, who praised Netanyahu last week, said a government without the two ministers would send a message that Israel was “turning a new page”.

“This will allow Israel to rebuild lost credibility, increase the opportunity for an expansion of the Abraham Accords, and enjoy a better relationship with Democrats and Republicans and Americans at large,” he said.

The Abraham Accords are the 2020 agreement, mediated by US President Donald Trump’s first administration, that saw Israel establish relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. It later re-established official ties with Morocco.

Representatives for Ben-Gvir and Smotrich did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

As ministers in Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist coalition, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich have overseen policies widely perceived as discriminatory against Israel’s minority Arab population and Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank.

Several countries, including Britain, Canada and Australia, have imposed sanctions on the two ministers over accusations that they have incited violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party is projected to win around 10 parliamentary seats at Tuesday’s election, up from 6, while Smotrich’s Religious Zionism is projected to win 8, up from 7.

Ackman, who was visiting Israel last week, and who along with his wife Neri Oxman owns 5 per cent of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, supported Trump’s candidacy for president in 2024. Trump last week publicly endorsed Netanyahu for prime minister.

Nimrod Goren, the president of Israeli think tank Mitvim, said Ackman’s statement appeared to reflect a desire among Trump’s circles for Netanyahu to drop his far-right allies after the vote to form a ‘unity government’ with opposition parties.

However, Gadi Eisenkot, the leading challenger to Netanyahu, and other opposition party leaders have ruled out forming a government with Israel’s longest-serving prime minister.

Speaking at a Tel Aviv conference on Thursday, Ackman praised Netanyahu, who he said had done a good job in protecting and defending Israel since the Oct 7, 2023 Hamas attack.

Thousands of Israelis rallied in Tel Aviv on Saturday, calling for an independent inquiry into the attack that killed around 1,200 people.

Relations between United States President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky took a sharp downward turn in recent weeks, with each leader openly criticising the other.

The two have long had a testy relationship, but Trump’s frustration over Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure triggered a crisis that Kyiv’s supporters fear could threaten vital US support going forward.

Here’s how the relationship soured:

What is the history of Trump-Zelensky tensions?

Trump has been skeptical of US involvement in Ukraine ever since his first term when, shortly after taking office in early 2017, he was asked to provide lethal aid to Ukraine and approved the sale of Javelin missiles to Kyiv.

“Everyone around him wanted him to do it, and they pushed him hard and he eventually signed off on selling them Javelins, very reluctantly,” said a former senior Trump administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “He didn’t consider it a core US interest. It was a European issue.”

Trump’s first major encounter with Zelensky came in a July 2019 phone call in which the Republican president asked the Ukrainian leader to investigate his Democratic rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter, in exchange for military support Congress had authorised.

That episode led to Trump’s first impeachment. Biden beat Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

Trump also has fostered a relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin that runs against the norms of US foreign policy but echoes his warm ties with authoritarian leaders Xi Jinping of China and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un.

“Trump has always wanted better relations with Russia,” the former official said.

What deepened the rift between the two leaders?

Trump’s current frustration centres on Kyiv’s attacks on Russian diesel infrastructure.

Diesel prices have hit record highs since the US and Israel launched a war against Iran in February, and global energy costs spiked. US lawmakers in Trump’s Republican party face voter anger over inflation ahead of the Nov 3 midterm elections.

On Sept 13, Trump began publicly calling on Ukraine to stop targeting diesel infrastructure. The following week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington was also concerned that Ukraine had hit US-linked oil shipments.

Ukraine has refused to halt the strikes, saying its long-range drone campaign is its only viable response to nearly five years of Russian bombardment. Moscow was forced in July to ban diesel exports as part of a raft of measures to address domestic fuel shortages.

Angered by Zelensky’s defiance, Trump on Oct 9 announced a deal to buy diesel from Moscow, issuing a temporary general license that allows Russian diesel to reach the global market. He also waived sanctions on Russia authorised by a bill he signed into law in September.

Suriya Jayanti, a former US official who runs a power sector company in Ukraine, said Russia’s strikes on Ukraine’s power grid have increased, despite Trump unilaterally announcing an energy ceasefire on Oct 11.

“It is clear to everyone in Kyiv that the goal is not actually an energy ceasefire, but it is really just an effort to hobble Ukraine and give Russia a decisive advantage,” said Jayanti, who is also a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank.

Has the US threatened to cut off support to Ukraine?

Zelensky has said Ukrainian military officials had been threatened by US counterparts, who said continuing the energy strikes would lead the US to cut off intelligence sharing. A US official familiar with the situation disputed Kyiv’s account.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the US official said there has been no increase in pressure on Ukraine.

We don’t have to pressure Zelensky. If he wants to make a deal he’ll make a deal. I think Putin is putting a ton of pressure on him and he (Zelensky) is putting some pressure on Russia but Russia doesn’t seem to be minding it as much even though they are getting hit.”

On Thursday, Trump said he had asked SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to restore Ukraine’s access to the company’s Starlink satellite system. Starlink’s disruption temporarily hampered Kyiv’s military drone operations and spurred fears that Kyiv would be left defenceless against Russia’s attacks going into the winter.

What is the status of Moscow-Kyiv peace talks?

Peace efforts have continued but so far have not yielded tangible results.

At talks in Oslo on October 20, Ukraine presented new proposals, and Trump’s son-in-law and envoy Jared Kushner repeated Trump’s demand that Ukraine stop attacking Russian diesel refineries.

The next day, envoy Witkoff — a close friend of Trump’s — met Putin in St. Petersburg. Putin agreed to release detained American Stephen Hubbard in what the two countries called a goodwill gesture.

Zelensky said on Friday that negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the US would meet in Abu Dhabi in the first half of November, a possible precursor to a meeting of the three countries’ leaders. The last US-mediated peace talks took place in February.