Netanyahu called off attacks that day, but struck Beirut’s southern suburbs a week later, provoking Iranian missile strikes on Israel and a public rebuke of both sides from Trump.
Hours before the US and Iran announced their interim deal on Monday, Israel hit the Lebanese capital again while Trump described Hezbollah retaliation as “small and meaningless” not deserving Israeli attacks at the sensitive time.
At a press conference in West Jerusalem late on Monday, Netanyahu acknowledged that he and Trump have sometimes had their differences.
“He is the president of the United States, I am the prime minister of Israel. We many times see eye-to-eye and there are times when we see eye-to-eye less so. I am in charge of Israel’s security interests,” Netanyahu said.
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Trump ups criticism
On Tuesday, at the G7 meeting in France, Trump made unusually direct public remarks about Netanyahu, saying, “I’ve had a great relationship with Bibi, but now Bibi has to be more responsible with respect to Lebanon.”
“I’m not happy with the way Israel has handled themselves with Lebanon and with Hezbollah. They should have been able to do the job faster.”
Trump criticised excessive Israeli force, saying Israel has been fighting Hezbollah “too long and too many people are being killed… You don’t have to knock down an apartment house every time you’re looking for somebody because there’s a lot of people in those apartment houses – and they’re not all Hezbollah.”
Netanyahu, facing autumn elections he is projected to lose, may be more willing to defy Trump as he contends with an Israeli public that opinion polls show has grown sceptical of the US president’s commitment to Israel’s security.
The memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran is expected to be signed on Friday in Switzerland. While precise terms were not immediately known, Iran and mediator Pakistan said the pact called for a permanent halt to hostilities on all fronts, including in Lebanon.
Netanyahu has threatened that Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon will not cease. Analysts say this position could sabotage the agreed deal between US and Iran.
On Monday, during a press conference, Netanyahu explicitly said Israel “does not know the terms“ of the US-Iran deal. He added that he “does not yet know what is written in the deal,“ noting that Israel was excluded from the negotiations, is not a signatory, and is therefore not bound by it.
