The deal between the United States and Iran to end the war against Iran faces fierce opposition from Israel, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel continues to bomb Lebanon in what appears to be a violation of the agreement that US President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian formally signed on Wednesday.
President Trump expressed displeasure over Israel’s continued attacks on Lebanon. Netanyahu “must take more responsibility” regarding Lebanon, the US president said at the Group of Seven (G7) summit in France on Tuesday. He said he was “not satisfied” with Israel’s invasion and response to Hezbollah.
On Sunday, President Trump condemned Israel for bombing the Lebanese capital Beirut just before the deal with Iran was signed.
U.S. media has published stories based on anonymous sources about rifts between the U.S. president and Israeli leaders, but the tensions caused by such reports have not shaken America’s support for its close ally. Experts say the deal brokered by President Trump to end the war in Gaza has given Israel an opportunity to deepen its occupation of the Palestinian enclave.
Indeed, some of the most intense public disputes between U.S. and Israeli leaders have since led to deepening security cooperation and sustained military assistance to Israel.
Prime Minister Netanyahu launched a scathing attack on former US President Barack Obama for signing the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, but that did not stop his administration from rewarding Israel with the largest military aid package in the history of both countries ($38 billion).
Charts the history of conflicts between U.S. and Israeli leaders that have shaped bilateral relations.
What happened to Trump and Netanyahu?
Israel is furious at the US-Iran deal that mandates a cessation of hostilities on all fronts, including Lebanon.
Israeli forces currently control about 20% of Lebanese territory, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet have vowed that Israeli forces will not withdraw from Lebanese territory.
In a rare move, the US president appeared to lecture Israel about the civilian casualties of attacks on the region. “Too many people are being killed. And we don’t have to tear down an apartment every time we look for someone,” President Trump said Tuesday, referring to Netanyahu’s tactics in Lebanon that mirror Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.
US media has been filled with reports of rising tensions between President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On June 2, US-based news agency Axios reported that President Trump called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “fucking insane” and blamed Israel’s escalation in Lebanon, where nearly 4,000 people have been killed and 1.2 million displaced.
Last May, Israeli media reported that a rift had developed between President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu over their trip to the Middle East, which excluded Israel, and over US involvement in Iran and its regional ally the Houthis.
Mr. Trump, who brokered the ceasefire in Gaza, persuaded Prime Minister Netanyahu to accept a deal to end the war. “Bibi, you can’t fight the world,” he reportedly told Netanyahu while urging him to sign the deal.
Have U.S. and Israeli leaders ever clashed?
Eisenhower vs. Ben-Gurion (1956-57)
Perhaps the most serious conflict between the United States and Israel to date occurred during the Suez crisis.
After Cairo nationalized the Suez Canal, Israel joined Britain and France in attacking Egypt, infuriating then-President Dwight Eisenhower.
Washington feared that the war would increase Soviet influence in the Arab world, with President Eisenhower publicly demanding then-Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to withdraw Israeli troops and reportedly threatening economic and diplomatic pressure. Egypt was able to maintain control of the waterway.
Middle East analysts say this was the most powerful pressure ever successfully exerted on Israel by a US president.
The incident occurred years before relations between the United States and Israel solidified after the 1967 war in which Israel occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza.
Bush vs. Shamir (1991-92)
After the Gulf War, US President George Bush sought Arab-Israeli peace negotiations and opposed the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The Bush administration delayed a $10 billion loan guarantee sought by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir until Israel addressed settlement concerns.
This resulted in a public standoff, with President Bush infamously calling himself “one lonely little man” on Capitol Hill and resisting pro-Israel lobbying.
However, this did not lead to a fundamental reduction in aid, and military ties continued and expanded under subsequent administrations.
Clinton vs. Netanyahu (1996-99)
In 1996, just a month after taking office for the first time, Prime Minister Netanyahu met with US President Bill Clinton in Washington. It didn’t end well.
Mr. Clinton then reportedly asked aides, “Who does he think he is? Who is this fucking powerhouse here?”
Mr. Clinton came to power deeply invested in the Oslo Accords, launched under former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, while Mr. Netanyahu opposed the Oslo Accords, which called for a settlement freeze. Netanyahu later boasted about how he had undermined the Oslo process. Israel’s settler population has grown from 250,000 in the 1990s to 700,000 today.
Despite the strained relationship, Clinton poured political capital into brokering the 1998 Wye River Memorandum, which promised swift and greater autonomy for the Palestinians. For that Intensive negotiations between Prime Minister Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
In May of the following year, the coalition government led by Prime Minister Netanyahu collapsed, and Ehud Barak became Prime Minister of Israel.
Obama vs. Netanyahu (2009-16)
This was perhaps the most public confrontation in decades.
Relations between Obama and Netanyahu soured first over Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, and then over the administration’s negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.
The conflict reached its peak in 2015, when Netanyahu accepted an invitation from Republicans to address Congress and oppose President Obama’s Iran policy without coordinating with the White House.
Prime Minister Netanyahu claimed that the proposed nuclear deal would “open the way for Iran to bomb.” Obama administration officials criticized the move, and several Democrats boycotted the speech.
But next year, President Obama signed the largest checks to Israel, totaling more than $38 billion.
“The United States’ commitment to Israel’s security is unwavering,” the White House said in a statement announcing the support. “As long as the State of Israel has existed, the United States has been Israel’s greatest friend and partner, and today that fact was once again emphasized.”
Is Israel still a US asset?
Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump continue to have a complicated relationship.
“Trump likes Netanyahu because there’s something about him that reminds him of himself,” said Yossi Mekelberg, a senior consulting fellow in the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House, a London-based think tank. “A person who is transactional, who is selfish, who is always willing to go to war, that’s what’s appealing to Trump.”
Similarly, Netanyahu understands the United States and thinks he can manipulate him because “Prime Minister Netanyahu lives by manipulation. He has been manipulating Israeli society,” Mekelberg told Al Jazeera.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu can change any situation to his will,” he said. “But sometimes he also knows where to brake.”
But now Trump appears to be pushing Netanyahu into a corner, Mekelberg said.
“The U.S.-Israel relationship goes beyond two people, and we share common interests and values. But bipartisan support for Israel in the United States is waning,” he said, adding that U.S. support under the Trump administration cannot be taken for granted by Israel.
“Whereas once Israel was seen as a strategic asset, under Netanyahu it is now seen as a burden.”
