There is a dynamic playing out at the highest levels of global diplomacy that, if you strip away the suits and summits, looks uncomfortably familiar. One party screams, humiliates, and betrays. The other apologizes, flatters, and comes back for more.This week at the G7 summit in Évian, Donald Trump told reporters that without him, "there'd be no Israel." He said Israel "would have been blown off the face of the earth." He said every smart Israeli knows this. Then, in almost the same breath, he called his relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu "unbelievable."
Hours earlier, he had told Axios something rather different. "Why did Bibi have to do a f---ing attack? I was so p***ed off. I let him know. He has no f---ing judgment. I let him know that," Trump said, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname. That is the American president. Speaking about the leader of America's closest ally in the Middle East. In those words. And Netanyahu? He said the relationship was strong. He expressed gratitude. He praised Trump's contribution to Israel's security. He did not push back publicly. He never does.
This has been the pattern for years, and it is worth naming clearly.
Trump froze Netanyahu out entirely after Netanyahu congratulated Biden on winning the 2020 election, doing what any head of state would do in acknowledging the incoming president of the United States. Trump was furious. "Nobody did more for Bibi. And I liked Bibi," he said. "But I also like loyalty." He reportedly told an Israeli journalist: "F--- him," and said he hadn't spoken to Netanyahu since. Netanyahu, for his part, spent the next several years trying to win his way back into Trump's good graces.
He succeeded. And then this week happened.
Trump's phone call with Netanyahu over Lebanon became heated, with Trump using expletives to convey his disapproval of Israel's military plans, which threatened to derail negotiations with Iran. Publicly, Trump said Israel was "fighting Hezbollah for too long and too many people are being killed," and added, "I've had a great relationship with Bibi, but now Bibi has to be more responsible." Then came the line that should have landed harder than it did in Jerusalem's political circles: "Without me, there'd be no Israel," Trump said at the G7. "Because no other president was willing to do what I did." (Ed note: Without God, there would be no America or Trump. Be very careful with our future, Mr. President.) (Read More)
