Trump allies defend him to Israelis anxious over Iran deal
American allies of President Donald Trump this week defended him to an Israeli public anxious about a U.S. interim deal with Iran and White House
American allies of President Donald Trump this week defended him to an Israeli public anxious about a U.S. interim deal with Iran and White House criticism that together appeared to signal fissures in Israel’s decades-old alliance with Washington. West Asia war LIVE updates on June 23, 2026 The U.S.-Israeli relationship has been on a roller coaster, from the early confidence they shared after their joint attack on Iran to public disagreements between Mr. Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over how to end the four-month-old war. Netanyahu and many other Israelis see a risk that Mr. Trump’s memorandum of understanding with Iran will empower a state they regard as their deadliest enemy and constrict their ability to respond to threats from Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. They sense the U.S. alliance — long the bedrock of Israel’s strategic approach — is under strain as opinion polls show Americans increasingly unhappy with Israel and their strongest champion in Washington appears to be turning away. “The United States and Israel have an unbreakable bond,” Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, said on Sunday (June 21, 2026) after acknowledging there was an “enormous level of anxiety about the relationship.” He spoke at the JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem, where concerns about the state of the U.S.-Israel alliance dominated many of the discussions. Mark Levin, a conservative Fox News commentator and longtime Mr. Trump supporter who has broken with the President over the Iran deal, told the audience that while he did not like the agreement and believed that the “Iranian regime” had to be destroyed, he nevertheless praised Mr. Trump for what he said was the president’s support for liberty, religious freedom, Christianity and Judaism.
Israelis worry over criticism from Republicans Alongside their concerns about the wording of the Iran deal, Israelis worry about Mr. Trump’s insistence on Israel agreeing to a ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon and his language responding to Mr. Netanyahu’s resistance to those agreements. In recent weeks Mr. Trump has called Mr. Netanyahu “fucking crazy,” lectured Israel that “you don’t have to knock an apartment down every time you’re looking for somebody” and publicly pondered asking Syria to replace Israeli troops in Lebanon. Vice President J.D. Vance also struck a more critical tone, saying “Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time,” adding later that not all criticism of Israel should be dismissed as antisemitism. The fact that such sharp views are emanating from Mr. Trump’s Republican Party is especially worrying for many Israelis, with U.S. Democrats far more vocally critical of Israel than in previous years. Sid Rosenberg, a prominent conservative New York radio host, told Israelis that for all their concerns about Mr. Trump, he was the best option for them. “You could have J.D. Vance. Good luck with that,” he said, after acknowledging that “a lot of people in Israel are very, very upset” with the president. While large majorities of Republicans 50 and older view Israel positively, younger conservative Americans have grown more critical, a Pew Research Center poll from late March showed.
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