U.S., Israeli Leaders Clash Over War's End

“President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel launched the war against Iran with an unprecedented level of coordination. Three months later, they are fighting over how to bring the conflict to a close.

 

Trump wants a diplomatic agreement that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, dispose of Iran's enriched uranium and end a conflict that has driven up energy prices and divided his political base. Netanyahu faces pressure at home to intensify military operations against Hezbollah, Iran's most important regional proxy and a U.S.-designated terrorist group.

 

The tensions spilled into the open in the past week over Lebanon, where Tehran has made an end to fighting between Israel and Hezbollah a condition for broader talks with Washington. An intense series of meetings produced a fragile agreement that Hezbollah would stop attacks on Israel and that Israel wouldn't assault Beirut, Lebanon's capital, though fighting continued elsewhere on Tuesday.

 

It began on Friday when Trump gathered aides in the White House Situation Room and said he wanted a better peace proposal from Iran with guarantees it would never seek a nuclear weapon and clarity for disposing of its enriched uranium, U.S. officials said. It was an urgent demand, as Trump had just publicly said a deal was close.

 

But a new problem was brewing. Netanyahu was launching a major operation in Lebanon against Hezbollah following a string of deadly drone attacks by the militant group.

 

Trump was briefed that escalation there could derail the Iran peace talks, U.S. officials said.

 

On Monday, Trump held two tense phone calls with Netanyahu about the impending operation, two people familiar with the matter said. Trump demanded Israel stop attacks on Beirut in both conversations, the people said, leading to heated discussions.

 

But the second call escalated as Netanyahu insisted on attacking Hezbollah. Trump, his voice rising with anger, said Netanyahu had to obey because he would be in prison without the White House's support, the people said. Netanyahu faces a corruption trial in Israel, and Trump has repeatedly called for him to be pardoned.

 

The calls continued a string of testy discussions between Trump and Netanyahu, including one just last month. Trump has also used salty language when talking about the prime minister, telling aides last year Netanyahu was "f---king me" over strikes on Hamas in the Gaza Strip to which the U.S. objected.

 

The Monday calls show the difficulty of maintaining the close cooperation Trump and Netanyahu displayed during the fighting in their war with Iran as Washington's focus shifts to ending the conflict.

 

"I think there are major gaps," said Danny Citrinowicz, a former Israeli military intelligence official and senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. "Trump wants to exhaust any efforts and doesn't want to have any spoilers."

 

Both leaders face a ticking clock with elections looming in the fall -- and they are being pushed in opposite directions by their electorates.

 

Trump, a Republican, is under pressure to wrap up a war that has pushed up energy prices and exposed divisions within his Make America Great Again movement, where influential voices such as Tucker Carlson have questioned U.S. support for Israel.

 

In a bid to ratchet up pressure against Iran to meet his demands, Trump has imposed a U.S. military blockade of Iranian ports. That standoff escalated on Tuesday when U.S. Central Command said it fired a Hellfire missile into the engine room of an empty oil tanker in the Persian Gulf. U.S. military officials said the ship had ignored repeated warnings.

 

Netanyahu, meanwhile, faces voters demanding tougher action against Hezbollah.

 

Iran moved quickly to exploit the divide, threatening through state media on Monday to abandon talks with Washington if Israel expanded strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut's southern suburbs.

 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. is trying to keep the Israel-Lebanon and Iran talks separate. He accused Tehran of "trying to stymie any effort in which Israel and Lebanon can work together and prolong it, so that if an arrangement is reached at some point in the future, they can claim credit for having forced it through."

 

Some Democrats, meanwhile, have sought to tie Trump's decision to go to war with Iran to his close ties with Netanyahu.

 

"Netanyahu said he's been waiting 40 years to do this," Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D., Md.) told Rubio during the hearing. "Turns out he finally found a president who was both stupid and reckless enough to join him." Rubio said he disagreed with the statement.

 

Trump initially brushed aside the threat from Iran to scuttle talks with the U.S. before increasing pressure on Netanyahu to hold back.

 

Israel said it ultimately agreed not to strike Beirut if Hezbollah refrains from attacking Israeli towns. Statements from Israeli and Lebanese officials suggested the understanding doesn't extend to southern Lebanon, where fighting continued on Tuesday.

 

The dispute reflects a deeper disagreement over the war's endgame. Israel's security establishment views Iran's leadership as an existential threat and worries Trump could ease pressure on Tehran. Trump, while demanding tougher terms from Iran, is also searching for a diplomatic off-ramp.

 

Trump's intervention drew criticism in Israel, where opponents accused Netanyahu of allowing Washington to constrain Israeli military operations.

 

The friction is striking because Trump and Netanyahu entered the war with unusual alignment. Trump and Netanyahu publicly shared the goal of crippling Iran's nuclear program and weakening the regime's ability to threaten the region.

 

But after Iran disrupted shipping through the strait and sent energy prices higher, Washington's priorities began to shift toward securing a diplomatic settlement.

 

"This is Trump's show," Citrinowicz said. "It's not Netanyahu's show."” [1]

 

1. U.S., Israeli Leaders Clash Over War's End. Ward, Alexander; Anat Peled in Tel Aviv; Abdel-Baqui, Omar.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 03 June 2026: A1.