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Trump's gone rogue and left Netanyahu a horrendous choice

Wednesday, 17 June 2026 02:38

By Adam Parsons, Middle East correspondent

Israeli diplomacy has just thumped into a big problem.

When you rely on one friend to get you out of trouble, you really need a plan if that friend goes rogue.

This analysis originally featured in our live blog.

For months, Donald Trump has been the loyal ally – "the greatest friend Israel has ever had", according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

That was, until Trump decided that what he really wanted was a return to cheap fuel, an end to the war and a deal with Iran. At which point, Netanyahu's ongoing belligerence and his determination to extend and prolong the war in Lebanon against Hezbollah suddenly turned into a problem.

First, the US president called him "f***ing crazy", then he claimed that Netanyahu just takes his orders from the White House.

Up next was a presidential dressing-down for ordering an attack on Beirut when the deal with Iran was about to be signed.

And now, Trump has said that Israel is killing too many people in Lebanon, that Syria would be a better job and, with hyperbole that is startling even by his standards, "without me there would be no Israel".

Meanwhile, Netanyahu, who, I'm told, still has not even seen the wording of the US-Iran agreement, is adamant that his troops will stay in Lebanon and that, while he and Trump enjoy forthright conversations, he makes decisions about national security.

But the Israeli leader, who faces an election later this year, is now facing a politically horrendous choice.

On the one hand, he could do what Trump wants, scaling down his attacks against Hezbollah and ultimately pulling out of Lebanon – which would maintain the relationship with the president but would probably damage his reputation, evaporate his popular support (many voters think the war in Lebanon is absolutely justified), embolden his political opponents, and cost him the election.

Or he sticks to his guns and jeopardises Israel's relationship with just about its only ally. Which might well also cost him the election.

Read more expert analysis:
What happens if Cuba collapses
Trump's Iran deal is an admission of defeat

All this against a backdrop of widespread dismay in Israel that sees Trump's deal as a catastrophic own goal that emboldens the Iranian regime and does nothing to safeguard Israel.

Netanyahu may be a great survivor, but this is politics on the edge.

Sky News

(c) Sky News 2026: Trump's gone rogue and left Netanyahu a horrendous choice

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