Netanyahu defies Trump, bombs Lebanon as Israel and the US trade barbs

Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, 20 June reiterated that Israel will not leave occupied land in Lebanon, despite the US‑Iran MoU calling for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon. “We will stay in the Lebanon security buffer zone for as long as necessary,” said the Israeli PM while admitting differences with the US President Donald Trump. “Many times, we see eye to eye, and there are also cases in which we see less eye to eye. I am responsible for Israel’s security interests. I stand up for them,” he asserted.

Netanyahu had refrained from making any public statement till now, even as his ministers and a section of the Israeli media vented their ire at what they saw as betrayal. “We love the USA and are grateful to President Trump. And yet, Israel is not a banana republic…we are not partners to this agreement that does not ensure our security, and it does not bind us in any way,” said Itamar Ben-Gvir, minister of national security. Israeli war minister Israel Katz boasted that the Israeli military had completely obliterated the entire first tier of Lebanese border villages. Describing the mass destruction as a permanent "security zone", Katz explicitly declared that the 200,000 displaced Lebanese residents will not be allowed to return home.

Netanyahu faces an election due by October this year, which he needs to win to stay in power. Having accepted tacitly that Israel cannot go to war against Iran, two thousand Kms away, without US support, he and his ruling coalition are unable to withdraw from Lebanon next door. Iranian ally the Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Israelis maintain, poses an existential threat to northern Israel. The Hezbollah maintains that it is fighting Israeli aggression and invasion into Lebanon. Iran supports the Hezbollah and Hamas in Gaza to keep up the pressure on Israel, ostensibly to ensure justice for the Palestinians and ensure a two-state solution, which is opposed by Israel.

US President Donald Trump has not minced his words. ‘Iran would have blown up Israel. If it weren't for me, Israel would not exist today’, he said earlier this week. He however exuded confidence that Netanyahu and Israel would fall in line with his plan, saying indulgently, “Bibi Netanyahu is a warrior-prime minister. He should be acknowledged as that. They should give him credit”. He has good and warm relations with the Israeli PM, Trump told interviewers this week, admitting though that it would sometimes be tough to keep Netanyahu ‘sane’. Israeli ministers however have accused Trump of failing to protect Israel and throwing it under the bus, reminding Washington DC that Israel remains a sovereign country and has an independent foreign policy.

Not everyone agrees. Former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett told an interviewer on Thursday this week, ‘Israel’s international standing is so bad. It’s shocking, largely because of failures and statements made by government ministers. Netanyahu knows that Ben-Gvir's repeated stunts are enormously harmful to Israel. They damage our standing in the United States and undermine Trump’s ability to help us. But Netanyahu is incapable of putting Ben-Gvir in his place because he depends on him”.

Amidst signs of rupture between the two countries, patience appears to be running thin on both sides. Addressing the media in the White House, the US vice president J.D. Vance was blunt in warning Israel. “You are a (small) country of nine million people. You can’t just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have,” he said in reference to criticism of the Iran-US deal. An exasperated Vance said what no US president or VP has ever publicly stated before. “Over the last three months, two-thirds of the defensive weapons that have protected Israel have been built by American hands and paid for by American tax dollars,” he reminded Israel. Referring to Israeli attacks on the US President, Vance tersely reminded Tel Aviv, “Donald J Trump is the only head of the state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time."

The US President may have lost interest in the war with Iran, as Israel perceives. But will Israel be able to sabotage the Iran-US agreement and can Washington rein-in Netanyahu in an election year?