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Donald Trump angrily confronted Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel’s threats to resume airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, according to a report.
“What the fuck are you doing?” the US president shouted at the Israeli prime minister during the phone call on Monday, according to Axios, a US website that has frequently published reports on high-level conversations between the two leaders.
The report, which has been contested in Israeli media, cited a US official summarising Trump’s remarks to Netanyahu: “You’re fucking crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.”
The phone call came after Netanyahu had ordered the Israeli military to resume bombing the southern Dahiya area of Beirut to target Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia which has launched drone strikes into Israel. The Israel Defense Forces told Lebanese civilians to evacuate areas of southern Beirut, causing thousands of people to flee.
Iran said on Tuesday that it would suspend peace talks with the US over Israel’s ongoing campaign in southern Lebanon. Tehran insisted Lebanon should be covered by a ceasefire agreement meant to facilitate negotiations to open the strait of Hormuz and lift a US blockade of Iranian ports.
The phone call between Trump and Netanyahu came on the heels of that announcement, which would effectively freeze talks days after Trump had claimed negotiators had reached a preliminary deal that he was considering whether to sign.
Channel 12, a prominent independent Israeli news network, contested the details of the call. Amit Segal, the network’s chief political analyst, said Trump had not attacked Netanyahu personally and that the two had come to an agreement that he would refrain from attacking the Beirut suburbs if Hezbollah ceased its attacks on Israel.
Trump and Netanyahu have had a strained relationship in the past, although Israel has remained the US’s principal ally in the region and the two leaders jointly launched strikes against Iran in February at Netanyahu’s urging.
Trump publicly fumed last year that Iran and Israel “don’t know what the fuck they’re doing” during a 12-day exchange of strikes involving air power, missiles and drones.
After Netanyahu congratulated Joe Biden on winning the 2020 election that Trump contested, he said of Netanyahu: “Fuck him.”
Trump faces pressure from different parts of the Republican party. Pro-Israel allies who have called for the US to go further in its conflict with Iran, while others are seeking a rapid conclusion to the war to mitigate economic damage before the US mid-term elections in November.
Mark Levin, an influential pro-Israel talk show host who speaks to Trump, wrote that the “Iranian regime will benefit from that leak, viewing us as weak and desperate for a deal – even coming to Hezbollah’s defense”.
Netanyahu is also under political pressure. Israel’s parliament backed a bill this week in the first reading to dissolve the Knesset and trigger early elections, and his corruption trial is scheduled to continue after repeated delays because of Israel’s security situation.
