Posted on 08/02/2025 10:55:05 AM PDT by jimwatx
In a few words, US President Donald Trump this week suggested that one of Washington’s closest allies, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was lying. There was “real starvation” under way in Gaza, Trump told reporters in Scotland on Monday, a day after Netanyahu had called such reports “a boldfaced lie”.
Trump said he had seen the images of hungry Palestinians on television and on Tuesday declared that a person would have to be “pretty cold hearted” or “nuts” not to find them terrible.
It was a rare rebuke from a US president who has placed few limitations on the behaviour of Washington’s biggest foreign aid beneficiary — and whom Netanyahu has praised as “the greatest friend Israel has ever had”.
But Trump’s comments, amid mounting international condemnation of Israel, hinted at the existence of some unspoken limits to that relationship, say analysts and people close to the administration. Trump has given Netanyahu near carte blanche to use his country’s powers as he sees fit in the aftermath of Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack on Israel. But the president’s own ambitions for the region — combined with domestic political considerations and the competing influences of those around him — have created potential flashpoints.
A Palestinian woman carries a bowl with food she received from a charity kitchen A Palestinian woman carries a bowl of food she received from a charity kitchen © Khamis Al-Rifi/Reuters A small but vocal contingent of his Maga base, including younger Republicans and far-right podcasters, have grown sceptical of Washington’s relationship with Israel. “What is this unique, strange, disgusting, perverse relationship that we seem to have with Israel?” Candace Owens, a popular podcaster and frequent proponent of antisemitic conspiracy theories, said on her programme last week.
Pro-Trump firebrand lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene on Monday described the crisis in Gaza as a “genocide” and has proposed legislation to block aid to Israel. Congress rejected the measure, but polls suggest many young Republicans now have a negative opinion of Netanyahu. “My people are starting to hate Israel,” Trump recently warned one prominent Jewish donor, according to a Middle East expert who speaks regularly with the administration. Analysts caution against overstating the impact of critics on the far right.
“Will there ever be a blow-up with Israel and Trump?” said the expert, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “I don’t think so. But there are people in the White House who are watching this narrative develop in the right wing, in the Maga world, that is very anti-Israel, very anti-Jewish.”
Jon Hoffman, a Middle East analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, believes Israeli government officials “see the writing on the wall” and recognise that the relative blank cheque extended by this administration might not carry into the next — or even beyond the 2026 US midterm elections. Candace Owens ‘What is this unique, strange, disgusting, perverse relationship that we seem to have with Israel?’ said Candace Owens, a popular podcaster and proponent of antisemitic conspiracy theories © Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images
“That’s why they’re going full force” in Gaza, Hoffman said. “No one wants to stop them in the near term.” For Netanyahu, the dramatic weakening of regional adversaries by Israel’s post-October 7 military campaigns has created a canvas of opportunity set against the ticking clock of Trump’s four-year term.
Israel “would like to be a regional hegemon”, said Jennifer Kavanagh, director of military analysis at Defense Priorities, a Washington think-tank. “They cannot be a regional hegemon without US support. But they would like to push it as far as they can go.”
Trump gave a green light to Israel’s attack on Iran, even as it targeted buildings and people that had little or nothing to do with nuclear technology. His administration has also tolerated Israel’s continued bombardment of Lebanon, despite a US-brokered ceasefire, and the expansion of its zone of control in Syria, which the US wants to see stabilised.
In Gaza, where Israel’s offensive has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian officials, Trump has sided consistently with Netanyahu, blaming Hamas for the lack of progress towards an end to the violence despite Israel breaking a US-brokered ceasefire in March.
Keir Starmer, UK prime minister, left, and US President Donald Trump, during a bilateral meeting Sir Kir Starmer, UK prime minister, left, meets Trump on Monday in Scotland. Starmer has said Britain will recognise a Palestinian state in September unless Israel takes immediate steps to end the crisis in Gaza © Tolga Akmen/EPA/Bloomber
Last week, the US suddenly paused its formal negotiation efforts because Hamas had shown no “desire to reach a ceasefire”, according to Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy.
But when Israel bombed Gaza’s only Catholic church earlier this month, drawing complaints from Christian leaders worldwide, Trump angrily phoned Netanyahu, officials said.
And when Israel the same day carried out strikes in Syria’s capital, where the president has lifted long-standing sanctions with the aim of giving the country’s new leadership “a chance at greatness”, Trump put his foot down, hurriedly delegating the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, to de-escalate the tensions.
Last month, after brokering an initial ceasefire agreement between Iran and Israel, he lashed out at Netanyahu for continuing attacks on the country. “I think there are constraints on Netanyahu, and there are red lines,” said Kavanagh. “But I think it’s hard to say exactly where they lie, because it’s based on how [Trump] defines US interests in the moment.”
If Netanyahu sees the post-October 7 landscape as ripe for conquest, Trump sees it as an avenue for new investments, a smaller US military footprint and landmark peace deals, say regional experts and people close to the administration.
But even when Netanyahu’s actions appear to run headlong into Trump’s ambitions, it can be difficult to predict what might trigger Trump’s willingness to rein in the Israeli leader, observers say.
“I think he generally reflects whoever he talked to last,” said Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, who described Trump’s statements about the Middle East as so “meandering” that it was “hard to try to create any narrative” to connect the dots.
American politicians have long regarded Washington’s relationship with Israel, which receives billions of dollars in annual US military assistance, as a third rail of foreign policy.
But successive administrations have also functioned behind the scenes as a brake on Israel’s most extreme ambitions.
Part of being a pro-Israel US president meant stepping in when necessary to save Israel from itself, said Amos Hochstein, who was a senior adviser to former president Joe Biden.
Looking at the totality of Netanyahu’s campaigns in the region, “Israel looks like it’s out of control and needs an American intervention and stop button”, said Hochstein.
Trump’s remarks about starvation in Gaza might be an attempt at pressing that button, he added. The Israeli prime minister’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
A White House official disputed “the notion that there’s a wedge” between the US and Israeli leaders. “The president is able to have a positive relationship with Bibi” and simultaneously want to eliminate suffering, the official said. “Truly, the president is moved by what he sees with his own eyes. He doesn’t like to see suffering. Additional reporting by Mehul Srivastava in Tel Aviv
And half of MAGA (the real America first half) wants us to quit paying for these expensive wars. MIGA is not MAGA and this is becoming a bigger issue within the party all the time. Look what happened when Charlie Kirk brought Tucker and Dave Smith on to speak at a Turning Point event and while the audience cheered them the Evangelical boomers are trying to paint them as antisemites.
TRUMP’S OWN PEOPLE THERE WILL TELL HIM THE TRUTH.
If Israel didn’t fill the current power vacuum, the new Ottoman Sultan Erdogan would. Or maybe someone worse.
Well the truth is war with Iran is not in the interest of the US (especially at this time while other things are cooking) while it IS in the interests of Israel. We need to do what is in OUR interests and not theirs. This is commonsense and calling people anti-Israel for saying such is nonsense.
I'm sorry, I couldn't quite read that last phrase. Was it, "according to a man I saw walking on the street talking to himself out loud with his hat on backwards"?
I would believe him before Ham-ass, or any "official" that calls itself "Palestinian"--whatever that word means.
Ham-ass is a little Mafia that lives off sucker-donor countries in Europe and the Middle East--who probably know full well that every dime Ham-ass gets for emergency food and medical service goes to houses, yachts, and mistresses for the capos who run Ham-ass, plus weapons and explosives to kill Israeli civilians.
“ Netanyahu seems to want continued war with Iran next on the menu just to keep himself in power.”
Citation, please.
Israel may very well wind up tangling militarily with Turkey over this in Syria before this is over.
But we continue spending tens of billions over there and can no longer afford it. We have our own oil and gas reserves here in the US. Let Europe or whoever worry about what goes on over there. And let them pay for that themselves.
Netanyahu has said for a long time that he will eliminate Hamas. Trump agreed with him. That requires war. Amazing how many want to go soft on radical Muslims, and allow them to regroup.
God is on Israel’s side, so I’m on Israel’s side. He made a promise to Israel. He didn’t make one in the United States.
if I remember right God sent Moses to lead the Hebrew slaves out of captivity in Egypt and into the land of Canaan including the land of the Philistines with instructions to kill every man woman child and beast of the field within that land and take it over. when they got there Moses got weak and sent in spies to determine how strong the enemy was. His spies told him that they were too strong and the Israelites could not conquer them so Moses did not go in. Moses lost his faith and forgot he would not be fighting the battle God would. And all things are possible with God. So God made Moses wander in the wilderness for 40 years and only after Moses was dead did he send Joshua in to get the job done.
Does no one read the Bible? It tells you exactly what’s going to happen.
Starving people illicit sympathy, worldwide.
The US president told reporters that Israel bore “a lot of responsibility” for the crisis in a rebuke to Netanyahu, who had claimed earlier on Monday that there was “no starvation in Gaza”.
Asked whether he agreed with this assessment, Trump said: “I don’t know. Based on television, I would say not particularly, because those children look very hungry.”
He later added: “We can save a lot of people, I mean some of those kids. That’s real starvation; I see it and you can’t fake that. So we’re going to be even more involved.”
Asked what he would ask Netanyahu for next time they spoke, Trump said: “We’re giving money and we’re giving food, but we’re over here … I want him to make sure they get the food. I want to make sure they get the food, every ounce of food.”
When hostilities end Netanyahu will be put out of power and subject to prosecution on bribery charges (unless charges are dropped). So he has no incentive to end this any time soon. He’s got metastasized prostate cancer and figures he’ll just ride this out as long as possible.
Netanyahu also supported Hamas, telling his party that support for Hamas would make a Palestinian state impossible: agreements couldn’t be made with the Palestinian Authority so long as Hamas was in the picture.
Now he says Hamas must be destroyed? Saying so may serve his interests right now, but it’s not to be taken literally.
Has Gaza tested the limits of Donald Trump’s support for Benjamin Netanyahu?
Answer?
” suggested that one of Washington’s closest allies, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,”
Ally? What have they done for us? They take our money, cajole us into their wars, and unleashed the Epstein Spy Ring and the Pollard spy ring on us.
With friends like that....
not this crap again
Well I hope God sends a gold meteor worth $37 trillion to land on uninhabited US lands to pay for it then if the apocalypse is postponed (once again). We (and most of the West) are on the verge of bankruptcy and unfortunately the powers that be apparently see WW3 as the only way out. War with Russia will almost certainly turn nuclear at some point. It’s just insanity.
Good, it would teach Turkey a valuable lesson. Don’t f**k with Israel.
Oh, those nasty Jooooooos. If only we treated them like the Europeans
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