Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are increasingly at odds – and the President is concerned his reputation will be tarnished by bombed buildings in Beirut.
The President has publicly fumed in recent days at the Group of Seven summit in France that Israel is killing ‘too many people’ in its fight with Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
Trump has bashed Bibi for blowing up residential buildings while hunting down members of the Iran-backed proxy group.
Netanyahu’s willingness to let Israeli forces let loose in Lebanon, and even its capital city Beirut, have frustrated the President as he attempts to land an elusive agreement with Iran to end the three and a half month war.
‘Israel is fighting Hezbollah too long, and too many people are being killed,’ Trump said on the world stage at the G7 this week. ‘They should have been able to do the job faster.’
Trump continued: ‘You don’t have to knock down an apartment house every time you’re looking for somebody. There are a lot of people in those apartment houses, and they’re not all Hezbollah.’
The comments reflected a public airing out of disagreements that also percolated privately. The President has been trying to get through to Netanyahu, both over the phone and through the global media.
‘Why are you blowing up buildings?’ the US President reportedly asked Bibi in a recent phone call, according to the Wall Street Journal. His message was largely the same: ‘Stop blowing up buildings.’
President Donald Trump expressed frustration with Bibi and Israel, claiming they have killed ‘too many’ people in Lebanon and taken ‘too long’ with their operation this week
Flames rise after the striking of an oil depot in Tehran
Trump has fumed at Bibi over the phone about his willingness to destroy entire buildings
In another call, Trump reportedly grumbled to Bibi that the war’s impact on global markets could link him to Herbert Hoover, the Great Depression-era President of the 1930s.
Publicly, the Republican has been talking up the stock market, noting in a speech on Wednesday how only he is more brilliant than the market.
‘The stock market is more brilliant than anybody there is, including the people on this stage, other than me, of course,’ he said at the G7. He has repeatedly downplayed the war’s impact on the US economy and promised oil prices will soon ‘drop like a rock.’
The President, according to sources, has been frustrated by Israel’s desire to keep up the fight against Iran and its proxies while the US looks for a diplomatic off-ramp.
‘Donald, how are you going to verify that?’ Netanyahu quizzed Trump on a recent call where the Republican discussed Iran’s commitments to denuclearization.
A memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran was signed this week by their respective leaders. The MOU stipulates that Iran will fully open the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the end of the American blockade.
This allows Tehran to trade oil on the markets once more while kicking off a 60-day working period for the two sides to discuss how to dismantle Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
The deal reportedly shocked Israeli officials who had expected Trump to continue striking Iran into submission.
‘Bibi has to be more responsible with respect to Lebanon,’ Trump said. ‘I’m not happy with the way Israel has handled themselves with Lebanon, and with Hezbollah’
The President has privately told his advisers that no one is capable of handling Netanyahu, noting how the Israeli strongman wants to ‘bomb everyone,’ a source familiar with the comments told the Journal.
‘I find him to be great, but sometimes he gets carried away,’ the President told the outlet in an interview.
One senior administration official said that the President had grown tired of Netanyahu’s repeated calls explaining why something needed to be bombed.
‘Bibi tells the president why he needs to blow something up, and why Israeli intelligence knows how to do it, and when to do it, and the president listens,’ the source told the WSJ. ‘The calls are usually the same.’
In another call with Netanyahu earlier this month, Trump reportedly told the Israeli leader he was ‘f***ing crazy’ and that without him, Bibi would be in prison.
