Trump-Netanyahu tensions: Have Israeli and US leaders clashed before?
Media have often reported about rifts between Israeli and American leaders, but it has not changed US policy towards Israel. The deal between the United
Media have often reported about rifts between Israeli and American leaders, but it has not changed US policy towards Israel. The deal between the United States and Iran to end the US-Israel war on Iran has faced fierce opposition from Israel, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel has continued to bomb Lebanon in what appears to be a violation of the deal formally signed on Wednesday by US President Donald Trump and his Iranian counterpart, Masoud Pezeshkian. Trump has expressed his displeasure at the continued Israeli attacks on Lebanon. Netanyahu “has to be more responsible” in Lebanon, the US president said at the Group of Seven (G7) summit in France on Tuesday. “I’m not happy” with Israel’s invasion and handling of Hezbollah, he said. On Sunday, Trump condemned Israel’s bombing of Beirut, the Lebanese capital, just moments before the deal with Iran was to be locked. The US media have published stories based on anonymous sources of rifts between US presidents and Israeli leaders, but such reported tensions have not wavered US support for its close ally. The Trump-brokered deal to end the Gaza war, experts say, gave Israel an opportunity to deepen its occupation of the Palestinian enclave. In fact, some of the most bitter public disputes between the US and Israeli leaders have been followed by deeper security cooperation and sustained military support for Israel. Netanyahu was scathing in his attack on former US President Barack Obama for inking the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, but that did not stop the US administration under Obama from rewarding Israel with the biggest military aid package ($38bn) in the two countries’ history. Here’s the charted history of clashes between the US and Israeli leaders that have shaped the bilateral relationship. What’s up with Trump and Netanyahu? Israel has been furious at the US’s deal with Iran that mandates ending hostilities on all fronts, including in Lebanon.
Israeli forces now control some 20 percent of Lebanon’s territory, and Netanyahu and his cabinet colleagues have vowed that the Israeli military would not withdraw from the country’s land. In a rare move, the US president appeared to lecture Israel over civilian casualties in its strikes on the region. “Too many people have been killed. And you do not have to knock down an apartment every time you are looking for somebody,” Trump said on Tuesday, referring to Netanyahu’s tactics in Lebanon, which mirror Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza. The US media has been rife with reports of simmering tensions between Trump and Netanyahu. On June 2, US-based news outlet Axios reported that Trump called Netanyahu “f***ing crazy” and berated him over Israel’s escalation in Lebanon, where nearly 4,000 people have been killed and 1.2 million displaced. Israeli media reported in May last year of a rift between Trump and Netanyahu over the latter’s trip to the Middle East that excluded Israel and over Washington’s engagement of Iran and its regional allies, the Houthis. Trump, who brokered the Gaza ceasefire, persuaded Netanyahu to accept the deal to end that war. He reportedly told Netanyahu, “Bibi, you can’t fight the world” while pushing him to sign the deal. Have US and Israeli leaders clashed before? Eisenhower vs Ben-Gurion (1956-57) Perhaps the most serious US-Israel confrontation ever came during the Suez Crisis. Israel had joined Britain and France in attacking Egypt after Cairo nationalised the Suez Canal, leaving then-US President Dwight Eisenhower furious. Washington feared the war would strengthen Soviet influence in the Arab world as Eisenhower publicly demanded that then-Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion withdraw Israeli forces, reportedly threatening economic and diplomatic pressure. Egypt was able to retain control of the waterway. Middle East analysts look back at this as the strongest pressure a US president has successfully exerted on Israel.
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