The President of the United States, Donald Trump, has confronted the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, over the renewed Israeli military offensive in Lebanon, even rebuking him and calling him “completely crazy,” after asserting that if it weren’t for him he would be in jail.
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According to the American portal Axios, the call between Trump and Netanyahu to address the situation in Lebanon, when the Israeli offensive threatens to derail the negotiation process between the United States and Iran for the cessation of hostilities and the reopening of Hormuz, was high voltage and revealed the differences between the two in the context of the war in the Middle East.
“You are completely crazy. You would be in jail if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your skin. Now everyone hates you. Everyone hates Israel for this,” said the American president according to two sources familiar with the conversation.
Meanwhile, at another point in the call, Trump confronted Netanyahu and snapped at him, asking “what the hell he was doing,” referring to the military escalation in Lebanon.
A U.S. official stated that Trump “knew that Hezbollah had been firing at Israel and that Tel Aviv needed to defend itself, but in recent days he felt that Netanyahu was escalating the situation disproportionately.”
Another official noted that “Trump was concerned that Israel had killed so many civilians in Lebanon and opposed the Israelis knocking down buildings to eliminate a single Hezbollah commander,” Axios reported.
The official version of this call is, on the other hand, more diplomatic, and avoids any mention of a clash between the two leaders, who agreed to jointly launch the offensive against Iran on February 28, a war that has escalated to a regional scale and now focuses on the crisis at the Strait of Hormuz, blocked to international trade.
“I had a very productive call with Prime Minister ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu of Israel and there will be no troops going to Beirut and the troops that were on the way are already returning,” said the White House chief in a post on his social networks, in which he also assured having made contact with the Shiite militia party Hezbollah, who “have agreed to stop firing.” “Israel will not attack them and they will not attack Israel,” he added at a moment when the process with Iran is faltering.
For his part, Netanyahu has insisted on his social networks that he confirmed to Trump that “if Hezbollah does not stop attacking” Israeli cities and population, “Israel will attack terrorist targets in Beirut.” “Our position remains firm,” he said, emphasizing that the Israeli Army “will continue to act as planned in southern Lebanon.”
The latest large-scale hostilities in Lebanon broke out on March 2, when Hezbollah launched projectiles against Israel in response to the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the aforementioned offensive. This step broke the ceasefire agreed upon in November 2024 after thirteen months of continuous fighting following Hamas attacks in Israeli territory on October 7, 2023.
