US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Monday, but their relationship is under growing strain after the US president reportedly called the Israeli premier 'crazy.' Trump unleashed a profane tirade over the phone at Netanyahu over Israel's threats to bomb the Lebanese capital Beirut, fearing it would undermine talks with Tehran, according to Axios and ABC News.
This development underscores the increasingly shaky ties between two right-wing allies with much to lose politically from the Middle East war, and who both face criticism for being beholden to the other. Trump seeks a way out of a war that has badly hit the US economy less than six months before midterm elections, which will determine if his Republican party retains control of Congress. The 79-year-old second-term Republican president also faces growing criticism from parts of his Make America Great Again (MAGA) coalition that he is doing Israel's bidding in the Iran war.
Meanwhile, Israel's veteran prime minister faces the possible collapse of his right-wing coalition and is under fire for bowing to Trump on security matters after calling off a plan to attack Beirut. 'You're fucking crazy. You'd be in prison if it weren't for me. I'm saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this,' Axios quoted Trump as shouting at Netanyahu during the call on Monday. Israeli media have rejected this account of the conversation.
A White House official referred AFP to Trump's Truth Social posts from Monday when asked to confirm Axios's account and to comment on the state of the relationship with Netanyahu. In his posts, Trump thanked Netanyahu for what he said was an agreement to pull troops back from Beirut and to 'stop the shooting' with Hezbollah. Iran had reportedly halted peace talks because of Israel's attacks on Lebanon.
Analysts note this is not the first time they have fallen out, nor will it be the last. 'The fact of personal tensions between Netanyahu and US presidents is not new,' former ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, now a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council, told AFP. 'In fact, he has a perfect record of reaching that point of frustration with every US president he's worked with.' Netanyahu has been trying to persuade US presidents for three decades to attack Iran over its nuclear program, but in Trump he finally found an ideological bedfellow. The Israeli premier met Trump on multiple occasions since his return to power and was instrumental in getting the US leader over the line in February when he was still deciding whether to go to war, the New York Times reported recently.
As the war drags on, both the conflict and his alliance with Netanyahu are proving politically costly. Former Trump allies like broadcaster Tucker Carlson and ex-congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene accuse him of letting Israel drag the United States into another Middle East war, contrary to the 'America First' principles the MAGA movement represents. 'Support of Israel seems to mean our guys are going to die,' former Fox News host Megyn Kelly said on her show recently. The Republican party has long been staunchly pro-Israel but is becoming increasingly divided on the issue. Some 57 percent of Republicans ages 18 to 49 have an unfavorable opinion of Israel, up from 50 percent last year, a Pew Research poll showed in April.
The Iran war's effect on prices threatens Republican chances in November's midterm elections. If Democrats retake control of Congress, Trump could face impeachment for the third time. For Netanyahu, with open war fronts in Lebanon, Iran, and Gaza, and a string of corruption charges at home, the stakes are arguably higher. 'Netanyahu is dying to stay in power,' Mairav Zonszein of the International Crisis Group told AFP. 'Trump is trying to figure out a way out of it, and he clearly has a lot of leverage over Netanyahu. Netanyahu can't just go against Trump.' She added that Trump is 'trying to move forward, and Netanyahu is still trying to go back to war. That's the main divergence here.'
