Netanyahu and Trump Head Toward Open Clash Over Iran and Lebanon

As the U.S.-Iran deal takes shape, the article says Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel are losing Donald Trump without a backup plan. Before the war began, Trump reportedly believed the fight would be easy, and Netanyahu and Mossad chief David Barnea are said to have reinforced that impression in a White House meeting. U.S. officials had already understood the situation was more complicated, but Trump initially sided with Netanyahu and only later realized the scale of the problem.

During the war, after major exchanges of fire, Iran did not surrender. Instead, it blocked the Strait of Hormuz and shook the international system, prompting Trump to conclude the conflict was becoming too costly and to push for an end. He tried for some time to stop the war, including through threats to Iran that were not taken seriously. According to the article, Israel’s strike in Beirut was viewed in Washington as a “slap in the face,” with the U.S. feeling it had gone to war alongside a partner only to discover that Netanyahu was trying to sabotage the negotiations behind the scenes.

Israeli officials familiar with the matter said Trump and people around him came to that same conclusion. Trump still supports Israel and believes it would not exist without him, but he is said to see the Beirut strike as an act of ingratitude. One informed source said, “He understood that Bibi’s view is not his view. Bibi wants something else. Bibi did not want to end the war. He does not want the agreement. He wants to go back to bombing.”

Trump has since moved to pressure Netanyahu, including by saying it is not certain Netanyahu will run in the next election, which in political code suggests he is showing him the door. The article says that to Trump, rocket fire at northern Israeli communities is not necessarily a casus belli if no one is hurt, and that he also said regime change in Iran was never the goal and that the current regime is behaving rationally. Netanyahu, for his part, is said to understand he cannot overplay his hand, but the moment is approaching when a confrontation with Trump, or a serious effort to persuade him, will become unavoidable.