President Donald Trump publicly criticized Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, saying the Israeli prime minister “has to be more responsible” on Lebanon as the United States tries to lock down a deal with Iran.
“I’m not happy with the way Israel has handled themselves with Lebanon and with Hezbollah,” the president said.
Israel attacked Lebanon hours before agreements were scheduled to be signed, a move that angered Trump.
“I let them know that,” Trump said while speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in France.
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Trump said Israel’s fight against Hezbollah had dragged on too long, killed too many people and complicated his Iran diplomacy.
“You don’t have to knock down an apartment house every time you’re looking for somebody, because there are a lot of people in those apartment houses, and they’re not all Hezbollah, that I can tell you,” Trump said.
“[Israel] should have been able to do the job faster. It just goes on forever. And when that happens, it throws a negative light on the big deal, and that’s the deal with Iran,” Trump added.
The comments made public a growing rift between Trump and Netanyahu over Lebanon, where Israel’s campaign has become a sticking point in Trump’s push for a deal with Iran.
The dispute comes days before a signing ceremony expected Friday in Switzerland to formalize a U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding that would open a second phase of negotiations about a nuclear deal.
Iran’s foreign minister has said Israeli troops remaining in southern Lebanon or further Israeli strikes there would violate the deal, while Israeli officials said Monday they would keep troops in Lebanon because “Trump’s agreement does not bind us.”
Trump and Netanyahu have long portrayed their relationship as close. Netanyahu has repeatedly called Trump Israel’s “greatest friend,” and Trump aides have previously told NOTUS that Netanyahu remains one of Trump’s closest allies abroad.
But the relationship has become more complicated as Trump pushes for an Iran deal. Parts of Trump’s base have also grown more skeptical of Netanyahu, especially those opposed to U.S. involvement in foreign wars. That skepticism began during Israel’s war in Gaza and continued through the Iran escalation.
Alan Eyre, a former U.S. diplomat who worked on the Iran nuclear deal, said Netanyahu has strong political incentives to keep pressure on Iran and Hezbollah.
“Israel is like a gored bull,” Eyre told NOTUS. “Netanyahu needs to — for domestic political reasons, he’s facing the reelection later this year — maintain the war against Iran because he sees it as an existential threat and the war is popular in Israel. And also the war against Hezbollah. So if he can’t continue attacking Iran, maybe he could survive that, but if he can’t attack Lebanon and Hezbollah, he’s a dead man walking politically, right?”
Trump has repeatedly cast himself as one of Israel’s strongest allies. But he said Tuesday that Netanyahu needed to show more restraint in Lebanon.
“Without the U.S., there would be no Israel. Without me, there would be no Israel because no other president was willing to do what I did,” Trump said. “I have had a great relationship with Bibi. Now Bibi has to be more responsible with respect to Lebanon.”
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