The deal between the United States and Iran to end the US-Israel war on Iran has faced fierce opposition from Israel, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel has continued to bomb Lebanon in what appears to be a violation of the deal formally signed on Wednesday by US President Donald Trump and his Iranian counterpart, Masoud Pezeshkian.
Trump has expressed his displeasure at the continued Israeli attacks on Lebanon. Netanyahu “has to be more responsible” in Lebanon, the US president said at the Group of Seven (G7) summit in France on Tuesday. “I’m not happy” with Israel’s invasion and handling of Hezbollah, he said.
On Sunday, Trump condemned Israel’s bombing of Beirut, the Lebanese capital, just moments before the deal with Iran was to be locked. The US media have published stories based on anonymous sources of rifts between US presidents and Israeli leaders, but such reported tensions have not wavered US support for its close ally. The Trump-brokered deal to end the Gaza war, experts say, gave Israel an opportunity to deepen its occupation of the Palestinian enclave.
In fact, some of the most bitter public disputes between the US and Israeli leaders have been followed by deeper security cooperation and sustained military support for Israel. Netanyahu was scathing in his attack on former US President Barack Obama for inking the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, but that did not stop the US administration under Obama from rewarding Israel with the biggest military aid package ($38bn) in the two countries’ history.
Israeli forces now control some 20 percent of Lebanon’s territory, and Netanyahu and his cabinet colleagues have vowed that the Israeli military would not withdraw from the country’s land. In a rare move, the US president appeared to lecture Israel over civilian casualties in its strikes on the region. “Too many people have been killed. And you do not have to knock down an apartment every time you are looking for somebody,” Trump said on Tuesday.
The US media has been rife with reports of simmering tensions between Trump and Netanyahu. On June 2, US-based news outlet Axios reported that Trump called Netanyahu “f***ing crazy” and berated him over Israel’s escalation in Lebanon, where nearly 4,000 people have been killed and 1.2 million displaced. Israeli media reported in May last year of a rift between Trump and Netanyahu over the latter’s trip to the Middle East that excluded Israel and over Washington’s engagement of Iran and its regional allies, the Houthis.
Perhaps the most serious US-Israel confrontation ever came during the Suez Crisis. Israel had joined Britain and France in attacking Egypt after Cairo nationalised the Suez Canal, leaving then-US President Dwight Eisenhower furious. Washington feared the war would strengthen Soviet influence in the Arab world as Eisenhower publicly demanded that then-Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion withdraw Israeli forces, reportedly threatening economic and diplomatic pressure. Egypt was able to retain control of the waterway.
After the Gulf War, US President George Bush sought Arab-Israeli peace talks and opposed the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. The Bush administration delayed $10b in loan guarantees sought by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir until Israel addressed settlement concerns. This resulted in a public standoff, with Bush infamously describing himself as “one lonely little guy” on Capitol Hill, pushing back against pro-Israel lobbying attempts. However, it did not end up reducing the aid fundamentally.
Barely a month into office for the first time, in 1996, Netanyahu met US President Bill Clinton in Washington. That did not end well. Clinton reportedly asked his aides afterwards: “Who the f*** does he think he is? Who’s the f***ing superpower here?” Despite their strained ties, Clinton devoted political capital to brokering the 1998 Wye River Memorandum, which promised Palestinians faster and further autonomy.
The Obama-Netanyahu relationship deteriorated first over Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank and later over the US administration’s negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme. The confrontation peaked in 2015 when Netanyahu accepted an invitation from Republicans to address Congress and speak out against Obama’s Iran policy without coordinating with the White House. But still, next year, Obama signed the biggest cheque to Israel, worth over $38bn.
Netanyahu and Trump remain in a complicated relationship. “Trump likes Netanyahu because there is something that reminds him of himself,” said Yossi Mekelberg, a senior consulting fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House. “Someone that is transactional, self-serving, and ready to go to war – that’s appealing to Trump.” However, Mekelberg noted that bipartisan support for Israel has been waning in the US, and Israel is now seen as a burden rather than a strategic asset.
Source: www.aljazeera.com