Trump to Netanyahu: You’re Crazy; “Everybody Hates Israel Now”
It appears that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finally went too far with President Trump.
While the president said Monday’s call with Netanyahu was “productive,” it was, Axios reported, a little more than that. Trump exploded at the intransigent prime minister, who told Trump that Israel would continue attacking Lebanon if it wished. Under discussion was Israel’s continuing attacks in southern Lebanon, which it seeks to annex as part of the Greater Israel Project.
Trump called Netanyahu “crazy,” and told him that he would be in prison if it weren’t for the president’s intervention.
Reports on Phone Call
The subject under discussion was Israel’s attack in Lebanon in particular and peace talks with Iran in general. The latter had threatened to stop peace talks if Israel didn’t stop attacks in southern Lebanon, where Israel Defense Forces have produced videos of themselves perpetrating Christophobic hate crimes.
“I had a very productive call with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, of Israel, and there will be no Troops going to Beirut, and any Troops that are on their way, have already been turned back,” Trump reported on Truth Social at 1:29 p.m:
Likewise, through highly placed Representatives, I had a very good call with Hezbollah, and they agreed that all shooting will stop — That Israel will not attack them, and they will not attack Israel.
The statement was unequivocal. Netanyahu had agreed to stop its war in southern Lebanon.
But “Bibi” saw it differently.
“Tonight, I spoke with President Trump and told him that if Hezbollah does not cease attacking our cities and citizens — Israel will attack terror targets in Beirut,” he replied on X:
This stance of ours remains unchanged.
In parallel, the IDF will continue to operate as planned in southern Lebanon.
Upshot: We’ll do what we want, even if we would not have the power to do so without free money from Uncle Sam.
“You’re … Crazy”
Axios reported that the call was anything but “productive.” Instead, Trump lost his temper and told off the haughty Israeli.
An official familiar with the call disclosed that “Trump told Netanyahu that following through on his threats to bomb the Lebanese capital would further isolate Israel around the world,” the website reported:
Two of the sources said Trump claimed he’d helped keep Netanyahu out of jail — a reference to his support during Netanyahu’s corruption trial.
Summarizing Trump’s remarks to Netanyahu, the U.S. official said: “You’re f**king 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.”
A second source briefed on the call said Trump was “p**sed” and at one point yelled at Netanyahu: “What the f**k are you doing?”
The U.S. official said Trump knew Hezbollah had been shooting at Israel and that Israel needed to defend itself, but felt in recent days that Netanyahu was escalating in a disproportionate way.
Trump was unhappy that Israel is murdering civilians in Lebanon, another official told the website, and “objected” to Israel’s “knocking down buildings to take out a single Hezbollah commander.”
An Israeli official told the website that Israel won’t target Hezbollah in Beirut.
“Trump’s anger appeared to be driven by the fact that Netanyahu’s decision to escalate in Lebanon was threatening to implode his negotiations with Iran,” Axios continued.
Yet Netanyahu’s claim on X that “our stance remains unchanged” might have been red meat for the conquer-Lebanon crowd in Israel.
“The second U.S. official claimed that, in reality, Trump had ‘steamrolled’ Netanyahu on the call,” Axios reported:
“Bibi said, ‘OK, OK, just make sure everything is taken care of,’” according to the official.
So “Bibi” ordered Trump to “make sure everything is taken care of.” That would make sense, given that Netanyahu has said American officials report to him daily.
U.S. Goals Different Than Israel’s
Former U.S. counterterrorism chief Joe Kent, who quit his job because Trump ordered U.S. forces to attack Iran on behalf of Israel, drilled into Netanyahu’s account of the phone call.
The prime ministers’ remarks illustrated “two fundamental truths that the Trump administration is not addressing,” Kent wrote:
1. We have fundamentally different objectives in Iran & the region than Israel does. Israel is determined to take out all threats & rivals, from Iran to Lebanon. They are comfortable with a brutal drawn out conflict. We are not, we want a deal with Iran & the [Strait of Hormuz] open. Our interests in Lebanon are very limited, we don’t want Israel’s war with Hezbollah to interfere in our negotiations with Iran.
We can’t be partners with a country [that] has an entirely different objective than we do.
On other hand, Kent continued, Iranian leaders think they are winning the war because Iran still controls the Strait of Hormuz and uses Hezbollah in Lebanon. Because a fast military solution to those two problems is untenable, “we can’t win at the negotiating table with Iran controlling these two factors.”
“The best course of action is to walk away, deprive Iran of U.S. targets & their justification for their aggression in the Gulf & Lebanon,” Kent concluded:
With Iran, use sanctions relief as a carrot to eventually get concessions once the [Strait of Hormuz] has reopened.
With Israel, drastically limit the military assistance we provide them to force them off the offense.
Israel’s move into southern Lebanon isn’t merely an answer to Hezbollah attacks. Rather, it is part of its Greater Israel Project, which seeks, at the least, to conquer Lebanon up to the Litani River.
As far Israel’s approval rating goes among Americans, Trump is right. Support for the rogue state is disappearing.
In April, a Pew Research survey found the following:
60% of U.S. adults have an unfavorable view of Israel, up from 53% last year.
59% have little or no confidence in Netanyahu to do the right thing regarding world affairs — up from 52% last year.
In both political parties, majorities of adults under the age of 50 now rate Israel and Netanyahu negatively.
