Trump calls out Netanyahu over Israeli strikes on Hezbollah targets
Escalating tensions in the Middle East are complicating former President Donald Trump’s efforts to broker a peace agreement with Iran. According to Fox News, the situation involves heightened military pressure on Iran, including U.S.-led strikes and a naval blockade, as well as Israel’s recent attacks on Hezbollah targets in Beirut. The discussions are focused on the potential terms of the deal, the mechanisms for verifying compliance, and doubts about Iran’s willingness to adhere to any agreement.
Concerns are mounting in Jerusalem that President Trump might unexpectedly shift his stance on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during these crucial negotiations for a U.S.-Iran peace agreement. This apprehension intensified on Sunday following a second Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) strike in Beirut, adding to the regional tension.
Despite warnings from the U.S. administration that any military actions could jeopardize a significant diplomatic breakthrough with Tehran, the strikes occurred as Netanyahu was preparing to meet with Israel’s Security Cabinet. This development also came on the heels of Trump’s announcement regarding an imminent signing of a new U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding (MOU).
A diplomat involved in the discussions with Tehran shared with Fox News Chief Foreign Correspondent Trey Yingst that the recent strikes in Beirut are complicating the peace deal’s finalization. The diplomat described the actions as “a clear attempt by Israel to sabotage the president’s deal and draw the United States back into conflict.”
Following the strikes, Trump publicly criticized Israel’s actions on Truth Social and expressed his frustration to Axios, stating that Netanyahu demonstrated “no f—ing judgment.”
President Donald Trump welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., on Dec. 29, 2025. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Natan Sachs, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, noted there was “absolutely this fear in the Israeli government,” calling it “a rational and healthy fear” over the pending deal.
He said a strategic chasm existed between the two allies, contrasting Netanyahu’s doctrine of sustained, long-term military pressure with Trump’s pursuit of immediate diplomatic victories.
“Now there is a sense in Israel that Trump may be growing weary of Netanyahu and the Israelis, and many others believe that if he got sick and tired of him, he could break norms in other directions and flip on Israel,” Sachs, an Israeli foreign policy expert, told News Media.
With discussions underway through Pakistani mediation, the Israeli prime minister’s office released a statement shortly after Trump announced the possible deal with Tehran on June 11.
Jerusalem “is not a party to the memorandum of understanding” between Washington and Tehran, Netanyahu said before reiterating on June 12 that Iran was “working to destroy the Jewish state.” He assured Israelis he had dedicated his life to “preventing them from doing so.”
On Sunday, a senior Israeli official also said Hezbollah attacks had targeted Israeli civilians for the previous three days as Israel prepared for Iranian retaliation.
President Trump’s push for a U.S.-Iran deal is fueling concern in Jerusalem that he could turn on Netanyahu as Israeli strikes in Beirut threaten to complicate negotiations. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Trump had already criticized Netanyahu during a phone call earlier this month, reportedly calling him “crazy” over a first strike on Beirut that was complicating the administration’s negotiations with Iran.
“It’s not just that there seems to be a crisis — and there were clearly expletives used by the president toward the prime minister on the backdrop of a joint and large military operation,” Sachs said.
“Israel and Netanyahu had first looked at Trump and saw both enormous carrots and enormous potential sticks,” Sachs said of the start of Operation Epic Fury and Roaring Lion on Feb. 28.
“Trump was a huge opportunity for Netanyahu because he was willing to break the mold on anything, but Israel has made a potentially strategic, historic mistake in putting all its eggs in one basket,” he added.
“Netanyahu was always prepared for the long haul,” Sachs said. “And the long haul is not four months; the long haul is years. Trump likes quick wins. Once the quick win did not materialize — and it did not — now you have a whole new set of problems.”
“Trump’s preference seemed far from pursuing a much broader campaign aimed at achieving the goals that Israel prefers, and he also has a much narrower conception of what a deal would be,” he added.
Lebanese civil defense workers search for victims in the rubble of a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut, Lebanon, on April 9, 2026. (Hassan Ammar/AP)
Sachs noted, however, that Trump and Netanyahu broadly shared goals on curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions, eliminating Hezbollah’s armed presence in Lebanon and establishing a post-Hamas future for Gaza.
But he said, “having that wish list is not the same as having a strategic goal. They haven’t both committed to them as strategic goals that dictate concerted action going forward.”
Sachs also argued that tensions between Trump and Netanyahu reflect different temperaments.
“Netanyahu thinks of himself as a strategic thinker — very able, and of course, he has a very high opinion of himself — but he is completely different,” he observed.
“Netanyahu is an erudite, well-educated, patient, highly suspicious and extremely pessimistic man by nature. His self-image is more, ‘I have thought everything through in ways you could not, because I’m smarter than you.’
“He’s very suspicious of everyone around him, and he’s been surrounded by this same coterie of individuals for decades.”
“In terms of personality and where they come from, their worldview is also actually very different,” Sachs added.
“You can’t imagine Netanyahu spending hours at night on social media. He doesn’t go on it himself, and it’s hard to imagine President Trump spending hours reading books, which Netanyahu likes to portray himself as doing. I doubt he has time for it, but that is an image he projects, and I think it is partially true.”
“Netanyahu also believes you live with a problem, you manage it, and you kick the can down the road. Trump is the opposite.”
“The U.S. may turn away and be uninterested; Israel simply does not think it has that privilege,” Sachs said.
“Netanyahu and Trump have very different time horizons, and that is partly geography and interest — and partly personality.”
<!–>
–>