A Vulgar Phone Call Reveals the Limits of Sovereignty When Superpowers Dictate Terms
JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long sold himself to the Israeli public as the man who can handle Donald Trump, uniquely capable of securing and holding the US president's favor.
But an acrimonious phone call this week, in which the president called the prime minister 'fucking crazy,' has laid bare the uncomfortable reality beneath the rhetoric. The leak, first reported by Axios and later confirmed by Trump himself, exposed strains that no amount of public flattery can conceal.
Israeli officials, speaking anonymously, acknowledged the call was among the most heated the premier has had with Trump. One official admitted the leak had damaged Netanyahu politically ahead of this year's Knesset election.
Beirut and the Price of Dependency
According to Axios, Trump angrily confronted Netanyahu over Israeli threats to resume airstrikes on Beirut's southern suburbs. 'Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this,' Trump was quoted as saying.
The US president told Netanyahu not to target Beirut after Iran warned that Israeli strikes in Lebanon were undermining talks to end the war. The conflict, which began with joint US-Israeli attacks, has grown increasingly unpopular among American voters, including Trump's own conservative base.
A senior Israeli official told Reuters that Netanyahu made clear to Trump that any pause in Israeli strikes on Beirut would only hold if Hezbollah stopped hitting northern Israel. Trump was reportedly receptive to this position.
Following the call, Trump announced that Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to stop shooting at each other. This prompted accusations from Netanyahu's political opponents, and some within his own government, that he had ceded Israel's sovereignty to Washington.
'A total protectorate,' said Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, suggesting Netanyahu had reduced Israel to the status of an American client state.
Wars Without End, Goals Unmet
Trump's decision to join Israel in striking Iran twice within a year appeared to mark a major victory for Netanyahu, who had spent decades urging Washington to use military force against Tehran's nuclear program.
Yet Trump has also taken steps that many in Israel view as contrary to their interests: ending US strikes on Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis, lifting sanctions on Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa, and ordering a halt to Israel's 12-day war with Iran in June 2025.
And while the United States and Israel jointly launched the campaign against Iran in February, Israel has not been directly involved in the US-Iran talks to end the war. Those negotiations have been conducted through Pakistan, a rare intermediary with no formal diplomatic ties to Israel.
The wars with Iran and Hezbollah remain widely supported in Israel, and much of the public wants the fighting to continue. In the US, however, the conflict has lost its appeal, even among Trump's conservative supporters.
The Sovereignty Question
Netanyahu said at the start of the war with Iran that conditions would be set for the Iranian government to be toppled. The regime remains in place, with no visible organized opposition posing a serious challenge.
He also declared that Iran's nuclear and missile programs would be destroyed, and that Hezbollah, which attacked Israel in March, must be disarmed in southern Lebanon. None of these goals has been achieved.
Tehran insists that any deal include Israel halting attacks on its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon. Trump has repeatedly said the US was close to an agreement with Iran.
'We are basically being forced to stop,' said Israeli pollster Mitchell Barak. 'We don't have a say in this anymore.'
Recent domestic polls have shown that Netanyahu's coalition government, the most right-wing in the country's history, would fail to win a majority in the next election.
Rift or Reality Check?
Nimrod Goren, president of the Israeli think tank Mitvim, noted that 'the differences are now very public,' unlike in the past when they were quietly managed behind closed doors.
Some Israelis are uncomfortable with the extent to which Trump appears able to dictate Israeli military decisions. In the US, some Trump critics argue the reverse, claiming Netanyahu holds outsized influence over American foreign policy.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said on Thursday that there are times when an Israeli leader must know how to say 'no' even to the US president.
Nadav Strauchler, a former Netanyahu adviser, argued that the perception of a rift was overstated and that the two leaders remain aligned on most major issues. However, he conceded that an abrupt end to the wars would pose a 'huge problem' for Netanyahu, as many Israelis would see it as Trump forcing his hand.
'No one wants here to feel like we are another star on the (US) flag. We want to feel independence,' Strauchler said.
For his part, Netanyahu describes Trump as 'the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House,' offering the kind of public praise that resonates with a president known to prize personal loyalty above all else.
Asked about the call in an interview with CNBC on Wednesday, Netanyahu said that, as in the 'best of families,' there have been 'tactical disagreements' with the US president.
A US official told Reuters the two remain friends and close allies, dismissing any suggestion of a material change in the relationship. However, the Israeli source acknowledged that the leak, and Trump's confirmation of it, was not helpful to Netanyahu ahead of an election he is polling to lose.
The episode serves as a stark reminder: when a smaller nation ties its security strategy to a superpower's political winds, sovereignty becomes negotiable. The lesson is not lost on observers far beyond the Middle East.