There was talk of the Israel Prize, that he would visit before the election, and tell people to vote for Netanyahu. Let’s just say that seems a bit doubtful now. The second is, of course, the pardon story—the total mobilization in Netanyahu’s favor. Now this is changing, and in my opinion, it poses a challenge for Netanyahu, even with his thirty years as prime minister.
This is perhaps the biggest challenge he’s ever faced with a U.S. president. Relatively speaking, dealing with Obama, Clinton, or Biden is easier, since you have the Republican Party wing and the U.S. opposition that will always be on your side. That’s not the case here. Much of the support Israel still has in the United States comes from the MAGA movement. What happens if Trump stands up to Netanyahu?
Having said that about this moment of truth, it’s clear what the correct answer must be in this test. "The answer must be that Israel will never agree to stop attacking Dahieh in retaliation, because that would mean Hezbollah would continue to grow stronger, and it would be a return in one fell swoop to October 6th," says a senior cabinet minister.
He notes that as far as we’re concerned, Iran is Trump’s problem and it’s his right to go there and make a deal, but Lebanon is ours. This is our war that was forced upon us, and we must not agree to the Iranian equation—even at the cost of a sharp confrontation with the President of the United States.
Yes, and we haven’t even discussed what’s in that agreement with Iran or what we’re heading toward. By the way, just to be clear about the Iranian actions with their proxy, Hezbollah: this was truly a proxy operation. It wasn’t a slip of the tongue, and no, it’s no coincidence that there’s now talk of a double-digit number of drones landing inside Israeli territory. This is an Iranian attempt to force, with American backing, a return to the October 6th lines into this agreement, and that cannot happen.