Netanyahu meets Trump to seek red lines

Before attending the funeral of Lindsay Graham – a close political ally of both the State of Israel and Kyiv within the Republican Party (“Pull the plug on Israel and God will pull the plug on you”, as the South Carolina senator used to say) – alongside Ukrainian President Zelensky, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived at the White House yesterday for his first closed-door meeting with Donald Trump since the war against the Islamic Republic was launched five months ago.

But whilst Israel is once again beating the drums of war, Trump seems to be marching to a different beat once more. “Netanyahu wants to persuade Trump to resume military operations,” Nahum Barnea, the doyen of Israeli journalism, tells Il Foglio. “Trump wasn’t keen to receive him, but he had no choice, given the funeral of Graham, who was very close to Israel. Trump doesn’t know what to do about Iran and has a very serious problem. If he wants to launch a major military operation against Iran, Netanyahu’s presence is no help. His base will say that ‘Netanyahu is controlling the war’, and Trump’s enormous ego cannot bear that. But if he doesn’t want to resume the war, being seen with Netanyahu is no help either. He has to tell his base that every decision is his alone. And whilst for America it is a war of choice, for Israel it is a war of necessity.” According to Barnea, Trump and Netanyahu have gone their separate ways since the start of the war. “Trump has followed the path laid out by Qatar, Turkey and the economic interests of key players in the Middle East. The Israeli government is lagging behind.” Netanyahu is said to have briefed Trump on Iran’s nuclear activities at Pickaxe Mountain.

“I don’t need Bibi to tell me that; he’s telling me because he wants me to stay involved,” Trump told Fox & Friends. “I know exactly what’s going on in Pickaxe and it’s not a big deal.” Trump also spoke of “very good talks with Iran”. The New York Times, citing administration sources, had reported that Trump had postponed the attack on Tehran due to a shortage of Patriot missiles. “An excuse not to end the war”, according to an editorial in the Wall Street Journal, which reflects the newspaper’s stance. But there is also opposition from the Gulf states to further escalation, as well as internal opposition within the administration to continuing the war, led by J. D. Vance, who criticises the “Israeli lobby” day in, day out and was present yesterday at the meeting with Netanyahu.

A senior Israeli official familiar with the talks told Yedioth Ahronoth: “Escalation is inevitable, both now and in the future. An agreement at this stage would only give the Iranians a free hand to continue their programmes.” Israel’s concern is that the lifting of sanctions and the unfreezing of funds would pour billions into the Iranian regime’s coffers, enabling it to rebuild its nuclear programme, missile forces and proxy groups. Jerusalem would prefer there to be no agreement under the current conditions, but Netanyahu knows that, should Trump choose the diplomatic route, Israel would be unable to prevent it. This is why Netanyahu went to the White House yesterday to try to secure a series of red lines aimed at limiting Iran’s ability to rebuild, rearm and move closer to a nuclear weapon. On Sunday morning, it was reported that Israel’s security cabinet meeting had been held in a secure underground facility. This leak is believed to have served a specific purpose: to make it clear to the Iranians that the next round is imminent.

And yesterday, the Israeli Defence Minister, Israel Katz, revealed for the first time that American fighter jets had taken off from Israel to bomb Iran. Following yesterday’s meeting with Trump – Netanyahu’s seventh visit to the United States since the President began his current term – it appears that his host was less than enthusiastic about the idea. Meanwhile, a senior outgoing official from the Israeli Ministry of Defence has criticised the war. “Operationally and militarily, the results are extraordinary – the facts speak for themselves – but at a strategic level, it is a failure,” said Dror Shalom, who until a few months ago headed the Defence Ministry’s Political-Military Bureau, at a conference organised by the Institute for National Security Studies, a Tel Aviv University think tank close to the security establishment critical of Netanyahu. “Even though we have set back the nuclear programme, the Iranian regime still exists and is negotiating with the Americans over the Strait of Hormuz – not even on the nuclear issue. And all this whilst Israel’s international standing is at an all-time low and relations with the United States are not at their best either.” Trump and Netanyahu both face elections in the autumn, and whilst Bibi is seeking to capitalise on their friendship, for Trump, the relationship with the Israeli Prime Minister risks proving a liability. Yesterday, an Economist/YouGov poll revealed that 49 per cent of Americans believe Netanyahu should have been arrested in Washington.

In a video released yesterday by the Wall Street Journal, Senator Graham compares Trump and Netanyahu to Roosevelt and Churchill. Today, the script for the war seems to have changed somewhat.