WSJ: Netanyahu finds diminished welcome from Trump as Iran war drags on

Pic.: Axios

President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met at the White House Tuesday, navigating a growing rift five months after the two launched a war on Iran that has proven far more complex than either imagined, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Tensions between the two had simmered for weeks. It was unclear until late last week that Trump would even entertain a meeting with Netanyahu. To secure an audience, the Trump administration pressed the Israeli leader to take steps to show he was serious about advancing U.S.-brokered peace talks in Lebanon and Gaza, according to officials and people familiar with the matter.

And then hours before the meeting Tuesday, Trump appeared to bristle at the possibility that Israel was publicly trying to pressure the White House to continue the Iran war. He said in a Fox News interview that an Iranian site known as Pickaxe Mountain , a focus of recent Israeli intelligence, was “not a big problem.”

When the roughly hourlong meeting concluded, Netanyahu described the meeting as “one of the best conversations” he has ever had with the U.S. president. A senior White House official said Trump had a strong relationship with Netanyahu and praised Israel for helping the U.S. blunt Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon.

Despite these statements, neither side offered a clear signal about the White House’s near-term Iran strategy and what role Israel would play in it.

In a fresh escalation of the Iran conflict Tuesday evening, Iran launched a surprise ballistic-missile attack on American forces in the Middle East, the U.S. military said.

Facing mounting criticism at home ahead of upcoming elections, Netanyahu had sought for months to get a meeting with Trump. He arrived in Washington with significantly less clout and influence than he had on past visits, officials said, and came highly attuned to what the president would want to discuss—or what would set him off. Sen. Lindsey Graham’s recent death was also a major blow to the Israeli leader, as the South Carolina Republican had long served as an intermediary between Netanyahu and Trump.

Netanyahu’s political problems in the U.S. had been growing for months, as he faces pushback from Trump’s fellow Republicans as well as Democrats.

Before his visit, Trump voiced frustrations at Netanyahu behind closed-doors to confidantes and in public interviews as the Iran conflict dragged on, officials said.

Points of strain in the U.S.-Israeli relationship include the conflicts in Gaza and in Lebanon between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah forces.

To secure the meeting with Trump, Netanyahu agreed to pull back Israeli forces from “pilot zones” in southern Lebanon, where the Lebanese armed forces are deploying to test their ability to secure designated areas. He also announced that Israel would allow members of the Trump-led Board of Peace to enter Gaza after months of stalemate.

The last meeting between Trump and Netanyahu took place in February shortly before the start of the joint U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign in Iran. At the time, Netanyahu and the former chief of Israel’s Mossad spy agency presented Trump with plans to topple the Iranian regime, according to an Israeli official.

The war has dragged on much longer than Trump originally predicted, and it has remained unpopular with many voters. This has led to political problems for Netanyahu from Republicans and Democrats.

Americans support Netanyahu arrest by 22-point margin: Survey

Nearly half of Americans believer the U.S. should arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his actions in Israel’s war in Gaza, according to a new poll from The Economist/YouGov.

When asked if the U.S. should enforce an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant for Netanyahu, 49 percent of respondents in the poll said “yes,” while 27 percent said “no” and 23 percent were unsure.

The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu in November 2024, accusing him of using starvation as a method of warfare and committing crimes against humanity, including murder and persecution. It also alleges that the prime minister intentionally directed an attack against the civilian population in Gaza, The Hill notes.

Israel and the U.S. do not fall under the rulings of the ICC, with both countries never having ratified the court’s founding treaty. The ICC, however, asserts jurisdiction over Palestinian territories.

Forty-seven percent of respondents in The Economist/YouGov poll said that they believe Netanyahu “is guilty of war crimes in Gaza,” while 24 percent disagreed and 29 percent were unsure.

The Economist/YouGov poll took place between July 25 and 27, featuring 1,559 respondents and plus or minus 3.3 percentage points as its margin of error.

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