Netanyahu under fire for giving in to Trump

Benjamin Netanyahu has come under fire at home after US President Donald Trump said Israel would halt plans to attack Hezbollah in Beirut, underscoring the pressure the Israeli leader faces ahead of an election that polls show he is set to lose.

Trump said on Monday that Israel and Hezbollah, Iran's Lebanese ally, had agreed to halt attacks on each other, hours after Netanyahu ordered new strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, prompting Iran to warn that Israel was jeopardizing Tehran's talks with the United States.

The Lebanese government later announced a new ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, under which Israel would cease strikes on southern Beirut and Hezbollah would cease attacks on Israel.

Trump reportedly told Netanyahu he was “f*cking crazy” about the possibility of undermining Washington’s efforts to reach a preliminary peace deal with Iran.

"He would be in jail if it weren't for me," a US official told Axios, citing what Trump told the Israeli leader. "I'm saving your ass. Now everyone hates you. Everyone hates Israel for this."

Axios reported on Monday, citing two US officials and a third source familiar with the conversation, that Trump rebuked Netanyahu for Israel's escalation of hostilities in Lebanon during a "profanity-filled" phone call.

“He would be in jail if it weren’t for me,” a U.S. official told the outlet, citing what Trump told the Israeli leader. “I’m saving your ass. Now everybody hates you. Everybody hates Israel for this.”

Another source familiar with the conversation told Axios that the US president was furious and at one point shouted at Netanyahu: "What the f*ck are you doing?"

Channel 12, a prominent independent Israeli television network, disputed the details of the conversation. Amit Segal, the network's chief political analyst, said Trump did not personally attack Netanyahu and that the two agreed to refrain from attacking the Beirut suburbs if Hezbollah stopped attacking Israel.

Netanyahu's challengers in the elections due by October have accused the prime minister of giving in to Trump on national security issues.

“The place is different, the story is the same,” said Naftali Bennett, a right-wing security hawk and former prime minister who has also criticized Netanyahu for the resurgence of Hamas militants in Gaza.

“A government that has lost control of Israeli sovereignty,” Bennett wrote in a post on the X platform.

Bennett and his coalition partner in the upcoming elections, centrist Yair Lapid, have advocated strikes against Hezbollah.

“A complete protectorate,” Lapid wrote in a post on X, effectively accusing Netanyahu of allowing the US to dictate Israeli military policy as if Israel were not a sovereign state.

When Trump called Netanyahu to urge him to delay the bombing of the Lebanese capital, according to an Axios source, he warned the Israeli leader that such an escalation would further isolate Israel on the global stage. Citing a US official, Axios reported that Trump was aware that the Israeli escalation was presented as a response to Hezbollah attacks, but that the US president considered the response disproportionate.

Trump has openly supported Netanyahu amid the domestic political and legal challenges facing the Israeli prime minister. The Israeli parliament this week approved a bill to dissolve the Knesset and call early elections in its first reading, and his corruption trial is set to resume after several delays due to the security situation in Israel.

Trump is also facing pressure at home from different parts of the Republican Party. On one side are pro-Israel allies who want the US to move forward in the conflict with Iran, while others want a quick end to the war to mitigate the economic damage ahead of the US congressional elections in November.

Mark Levin, an influential pro-Israel political talk show host who has spoken with Trump, wrote that “the Iranian regime will benefit from this leak, because they will see us as weak and desperate to make a deal — even as someone who comes to the defense of Hezbollah.”

Israel and Hezbollah have continued to exchange fire despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire on April 16. The latest conflict began on March 2, when Hezbollah opened fire on Israel in support of Iran.

Israel has since deepened its invasion of southern Lebanon, displacing more than a million people, while bombing areas it says are targeted in attacks aimed at rooting out Hezbollah has killed more than 3.400 people. Hezbollah has not released figures on its fighters killed.

Hezbollah has been firing rockets and explosive drones at Israeli troops and towns in northern Israel. Israel says 26 soldiers and four civilians have been killed since March 2.

The criticism points to growing tensions within the Israeli political system over the extent to which military decisions should be coordinated with its closest ally, the United States.

Netanyahu has dismissed criticism of Israel's military operations in Lebanon, saying airstrikes carried out during his term dealt blows to Hezbollah. After Trump announced a new agreement between Israel and Hezbollah on Monday, Netanyahu said Israel's position on the conflict "remains unchanged."

"If Hezbollah does not stop attacking our cities and citizens, Israel will strike terrorist targets in Beirut," Netanyahu said in a statement following Trump's announcement.

The Israeli military has continued to carry out attacks on southern Lebanon since Trump's announcement on Monday.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said yesterday that Israel had refrained from carrying out a strike on Beirut at the request of the United States. However, he warned that any new Hezbollah attack on northern Israel would trigger strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, considered a stronghold of the militant group.

Gadi Eisenkot, the former chief of staff of the Israeli army who is also running for prime minister, said on Monday that Trump's pressure on Israel to stop the attacks was unreasonable.

“There has never been an Israeli prime minister who accepted such a humiliating request,” Eisenkot wrote on X.

The criticisms point to growing tensions within the Israeli political system over the extent to which military decisions should be coordinated with its closest ally, the United States.

Netanyahu's coalition partner Itamar Ben Gvir, the Minister of National Security, announced on social media that the strikes on Hezbollah were necessary and that it was "time to say 'no' to our friend, President Trump."

The Israeli English-language newspaper "The Jerusalem Post" wrote that Israel "found itself in the humiliating position of having to seek American approval to defend its own citizens."

“The United States is now actively constraining Israel from taking decisive military action,” the editorial states.