Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told President Donald Trump last year that he was “the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House.”
Now, as Trump tries to finalize a deal to end the war with Iran, he is firing Netanyahu with rhetoric that no other American leader has dared to use publicly.
He claimed credit for Israel’s existence – “without me, there would be no Israel” – and cursed his judgment in interviews. He even described it as “crazy”.
Netanyahu’s tenure as prime minister spans four US presidents, and he has frustrated all of them at one point or another. But no one has expressed this more openly than Trump, who started the conflict together with Netanyahu.
The tension comes as Trump criticized recent Israeli strikes in Lebanon, which threatened to jeopardize negotiations between Washington and Tehran. Trump has pushed for a deal as he faces political backlash in the country, where the war is unpopular and has driven up gasoline prices.
“If Netanyahu gets in the middle of something Trump really wants, and that’s outside of this war, he’s prepared to use the leverage he has,” said Aaron David Miller, who served as an adviser on Middle East affairs to Democratic and Republican administrations for two decades.
An agreement is scheduled to be signed on Friday in the Burgenstock resort near the city of Luzern. Speaking Tuesday at the annual G7 summit in France, Trump said he told Netanyahu he was unhappy with his recent moves.
“Without the US, there would be no Israel. Without me, there would be no Israel because no other president was willing to do what I did,” Trump said. “I had a great relationship with Bibi. Now Bibi needs to be more responsible about Lebanon.”
There has long been a bipartisan consensus about Israel’s support in Washington, but it has broken down in recent years. Liberals have been increasingly angered by Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, particularly during the war in Gaza, and conservatives have questioned the relevance of longstanding American support for Israel. There are concerns about anti-Semitism on the left and the right.
Trump’s recent comments drew swift criticism from left-wing groups.
“He’s framing Israel’s existence as contingent on him,” said Halie Soifer, who heads the Jewish Democratic Council of America. “It is deeply offensive to the vast majority of Jews who care about Israel’s future.”
