When U.S. President Joe Biden warned Israel against attacking the city of Rafah in the southernmost part of the Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu tried to channel Menachem Begin’s famous rebuke to an American envoy: “Are we a vassal state of yours?”
Netanyahu’s bravado rings hollow. In truth, Israel has become a vassal—and Donald Trump, its de facto prime minister.
Anyone familiar with U.S.-Israel relations—or who read my column in November 2023, “Presidents, Not Prime Ministers, End Israeli Wars”—should not be surprised. Once again, an American president has dictated Israel’s red lines, and Netanyahu has complied.
The accomplishments of the U.S. military and the Israel Defense Forces in Iran were astonishing. Neither Netanyahu nor Trump backed down when it mattered most. We don’t know if the Iranian nuclear program was set back months or, more likely, years, and we can’t be sure of what they have secreted away that might affect that calculation.
Trump deserves to be applauded for giving the order to bomb the nuclear facilities, but he pulled a George W. Bush by prematurely declaring “Mission Accomplished.” Worse, forcing Israel to stop its campaign before all its objectives were met and demanding that Netanyahu end the war with Hamas in Gaza were further proof of who decides Israel’s battles. It was also the latest example of the hypocrisy of those who would have been apoplectic if the president were a Democrat and now are silent.
This marks the third ceasefire Trump has imposed on Israel. He is now pressuring Israel to accept a fourth that will end the war in Gaza before Netanyahu achieves the ill-defined total victory he has repeatedly stated as Israel’s goal. For Trump, what matters is taking credit for ending the fighting, not enhancing Israeli security.
While the nuclear situation remains opaque, we do know that forcing Israel to end the war abruptly did not eliminate the missile threat. This was tragically obvious when a ballistic missile hit Beersheva and killed five people. Another missile destroyed the home of my son’s girlfriend in Bat Yam while they were vacationing with us. Had they been there, they’d be dead.
This war was also a missed opportunity to cripple Iran’s economy. Kharg Island and key energy infrastructure were left untouched—likely at Trump’s insistence, fearing a spike in U.S. gas prices. The price shock never materialized.
Prime Minister Trump has micromanaged much of Israel’s actions—behavior that drew fury from the MAGA crowd when Biden did it. One of the most serious examples was Trump’s opposition to regime change and order that Israel not kill the supreme leader.
The war may have strengthened the regime’s hold on power. As poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson warned (in a quote Trump has cited about himself): “When you strike at a king, you must kill him.” Israel took out senior commanders, but not the head of the snake. The aged ayatollah remains unscathed and emboldened. Jews and others suspected of being spies are being hunted, and some are executed.
Remember, the Iranians have destabilized the region and threatened the world without a nuclear weapon. They still have the means to do that. As Iran experts have duly noted, the regime will not surrender or abandon its goal of spreading radical Islam around the world. Its commitment to sponsoring terror has not abated; its proxies have been weakened but not eliminated.
Trump forced a ceasefire in Lebanon upon Jerusalem, and though operations continue in the south, Hezbollah is alive and rebuilding in the north. The pro-Iranian Iraqi militias stayed out of the fray and were untouched. Trump abandoned Israel when he ended the war with the Houthis, and they have not stopped firing missiles into Israel. Iranian assassination plots are ongoing, including one that nearly killed Trump’s own former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, whose security detail Trump pettily removed.
Yet Trump still dreams of cutting a deal with Tehran. He tried before. He’ll fail again. The mullahs believe that they survived Israel and America’s best shot. Next time, they won’t hesitate to build a bomb.
While Trump and Netanyahu take victory laps, millions of Israelis are still running to bomb shelters in the middle of the night. Thousands remain displaced.
After nearly two years of fighting, Hamas—despite having no tanks or planes—is still standing. Netanyahu still promises an ambiguous “total victory,” but Trump issued another diktat, insisting that Netanyahu end the war. All the pressure is on Israel, yet MAGA remains silent.
Meanwhile, 20 hostages are believed to be miraculously surviving as the war grinds on. Trump promised “all hell is going to break out” if they weren’t released. That was more than four months ago, and he has done nothing but repeatedly raise false hopes that a deal is forthcoming.
His rhetoric toward Israel is more hostile than any president. He vacillates from “Israel doesn’t “know what the f**k they’re doing” to praising Bibi and calling for an end to the “witch hunt” against him. Trump also again played the vassal card by saying the United States—having given billions in aid to Israel—is “not going to stand for this.”
What does that mean? Is he going to cut off aid if the Israeli judiciary does not bend to Trump’s will the way it has in the United States? The pro-Israel MAGA hypocrites don’t dare criticize this outrageous meddling in the internal affairs of Israel for fear of angering der leader. We’ve learned that attempts to oust Netanyahu are treif, but intervening on his behalf is glatt kosher.
The far-right has become apoplectic after learning that Trump expects his deputy to end the Gaza war in a couple of weeks and declare a willingness to accept a Palestinian state. Critics are unimpressed by the contingency that the Palestinian Authority commit to reforms and that the United States will acknowledge limited Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.
Israel conditionally accepted the two-state solution in Trump’s 2020 peace plan, and Netanyahu famously said in 2009: “If we get a guarantee of demilitarization, and if the Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish state, we are ready to agree to a real peace agreement, a demilitarized Palestinian state side by side with the Jewish state.”
Netanyahu knows that a repetition of this position could bring down his government (although his partners constantly threaten, they realize that new elections would be to their detriment); nevertheless, he’s likely to say something sufficiently positive but ambiguous to satisfy Trump, and more importantly, the real audience: the Saudis.
Trump’s grand vision? Expand the Abraham Accords to include Saudi Arabia, Syria and other Muslim countries. Sweep the Palestinian issue under the rug. Deport Gazans to Europe and Africa. Rebuild Gaza as a Middle Eastern Riviera. Free the hostages and receive their thanks. Convince Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions. And collect his Nobel Peace Prize.
But back in Israel, the war continues. The threat endures. And it’s painfully clear: Some of the decisions that matter most to Israel’s survival are no longer made in Jerusalem, but in the White House.