In a post on X, Ben Gvir directly quoted Netanyahu’s own past words back at him. “Mr. Prime Minister, you said that a strong prime minister tells the President of the United States ‘yes’ when possible, and ‘no’ when necessary. This is the time to tell our friend, President Trump, ‘no’,” he wrote.
“Now is the time to do what is required and necessary to strike Hezbollah, to unleash the hands of our fighters, and to restore security to the north.”
The statement came hours after Trump personally intervened to stop Netanyahu from ordering fresh strikes on Beirut’s Dahieh district, a Hezbollah stronghold in the city’s southern suburbs.
The two leaders had a heated phone call in which Trump pressed Netanyahu to pull back, warning that renewed strikes on Beirut risked collapsing the fragile ceasefire with Iran and derailing ongoing peace negotiations.
Netanyahu stood down. Trump subsequently announced a new Lebanon ceasefire, saying Hezbollah had agreed to stop shooting at Israeli forces and that Israeli troops could remain in southern Lebanon but would not enter Beirut.
Ben Gvir was the most senior member of Netanyahu’s coalition to publicly voice outrage, though he was not alone. Opposition lawmaker and former defence minister Avigdor Liberman called it “unacceptable” that Israel had not struck Beirut.
“Soldiers are wounded, killed, and Israel’s prime minister is waiting for approval from Trump before bombing Dahieh,” he said. Former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot also referenced Netanyahu’s past remarks on standing up to Washington.
The episode has exposed a deep fault line within Israel’s political and military establishment over the degree to which Netanyahu is subordinating Israeli military decisions to American political calculations.
Iran has made it clear that any continued Israeli operations in Lebanon would be grounds for walking away from peace talks, a position that has effectively given Tehran indirect veto power over Israeli military activity in the country.
Trump, speaking to ABC News later on Monday, sought to downplay the episode. “There was a little glitch today, but I turned that one around very quickly, as you probably noticed earlier,” he said.
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