When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a strike on Beirut on June 14, US President Donald Trump was furious. Fearing the attack would derail a US-Iran agreement to end the war between the two countries, Trump reportedly said Netanyahu has “no fucking judgment.”
Trump is not the first American president to reach for profanity when discussing Netanyahu. The pattern stretches back decades and reveals a fundamental tension in US-Israel relations: American presidents need Israel as an ally, but they often find Netanyahu impossible to work with.
A History of Exasperation
In the summer of 1996, Bill Clinton met Netanyahu for the first time. Netanyahu lectured the president on the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Clinton emerged and asked aides: “Who the fuck does he think he is? Who’s the fucking superpower here?”
Barack Obama’s relationship with Netanyahu was toxic from the start. During a 2011 hot mic incident, French President Nicolas Sarkozy told Obama that Netanyahu was “a liar.” Obama replied: “You may be sick of him, but me, I have to deal with him every day.” Journalist Jeffrey Goldberg kept a running list of insults Obama staffers used for Netanyahu in private, including “chickenshit.”
More recently, as casualties mounted in Gaza after the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, Joe Biden reportedly called Netanyahu a “fucking liar” over his conduct of the conflict.
Why Netanyahu Frustrates US Presidents
Netanyahu is exceptionally single-minded in advancing what he sees as Israeli interests. But many global leaders are similarly focused. The unique factor is the place Israel holds in American domestic politics.
Large pro-Israel constituencies in the United States mean presidents cannot simply ignore Netanyahu or cut off support. Netanyahu has been willing to mobilize these groups against sitting presidents. In 1998, when Clinton pressured him to relinquish West Bank territory, Netanyahu spoke the night before their meeting to a thousand members of the pro-Israel Christian right, a group vocally opposed to Clinton. He also met with prominent Republicans. “I know where you were last night,” Clinton reportedly remarked wryly the next day.
Netanyahu was especially active in rallying opposition to Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. Whenever Obama tried to pressure Netanyahu on settlements, opposition erupted at home, stoked by Netanyahu. Obama eventually backed off, figuring the political pain wasn't worth it.
Many of Netanyahu’s clashes have been with Democratic presidents. This is partly because Democrats are more willing to question Israel, but also because Netanyahu has made a strategic choice to align with the conservative right. Critics warn this risks turning support for Israel into a partisan issue, potentially losing support among the American left.
The Trump Reversal
Netanyahu’s alignment with the Republican Party made him reliant on the goodwill of Republican presidents. But now a Republican president, Donald Trump, is calling him out. Trump’s leaked fury at Netanyahu signals a shift in US-Israel ties, as detailed in our analysis of Trump's Leaked Fury at Netanyahu.
Over the past year, Netanyahu pushed too hard. He long dreamed of persuading an American president to join him in attacking Iran. But he seems not to have considered how a failed or inconclusive war would affect American views of Israel, including on the right.
From Trump’s perspective, Netanyahu maneuvered him into a costly and unwinnable war. Worse, Netanyahu doesn’t accept what seems obvious to Trump: the most important thing is to end the war quickly and get the global economy humming again.
Netanyahu now finds himself in a similar dynamic with Trump as with Democratic presidents. Their interests diverge, Netanyahu won’t stop playing games, and the president is really annoyed. But the context is different this time. Support for Israel has collapsed in the US. Netanyahu has persuaded the Trump administration to join a war that has harmed the American economy and its global standing. The support of both the right and the left seems in doubt, leaving Israel with potentially nowhere to turn.
When future Israeli leaders consider what remains of the bilateral relationship, they may well agree with Trump about their former leader’s judgment—and reach for a few curse words of their own.
