Trump imposes series of public humiliations on Netanyahu

Trump raises the tone and demands Israel's responsibility in Lebanon
If the atmosphere between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu was already sour, the American president tried to make it worse this Tuesday (16), by suggesting that the new Sunni regime in Syria could "fix Hezbollah" and get the job done in a more responsible way than he believes the Israeli prime minister has been doing in Lebanon.
"You don't have to demolish an apartment building every time you're looking for someone," Trump said. "If Israel can't do the job without killing everyone else, he (Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syrian president) will do the job."
Trump's proposal for Syrian intervention in Lebanon is unrealistic - although he has approached the Syrian president, a former Sunni jihadist - but it amounts to a new punch in the stomach for Netanyahu, who in recent weeks has heard insults and swear words from the American president.
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Trump criticizes Netanyahu and suggests that Syria deal with Hezbollah: 'If Israel can't do the job without killing everyone, Syria should do it'
Trump even made a point of leaking them, dissatisfied with the growing offensive of Israel's attacks in Lebanon, which was an impediment to an agreement with Iran.
Trump's urgency to end the war ran over Netanyahu, who is five months away from the elections, emerges isolated and as a loser in the confrontation with Iran, without achieving his objectives of eliminating the nuclear program and changing the regime.
President Donald Trump answers a question from a reporter at the end of a press conference with the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, at Mar-a-Lago, on December 29, 2025, in Palm Beach, Florida.
AP/Alex Brandon, file
The prime minister also loses internally after failing to promise that, with war, he would bring peace to the Israelis.
Israel's varied political spectrum, including the prime minister's allies, reacted badly to the announcement of the agreement between the US and Iran, signed in absentia and without the participation of the head of government.
Netanyahu convinced Trump to enter the war, but was left out when it came to exiting it - he didn't even have access to the terms of the agreement. But it still appears willing to resist keeping its troops in South Lebanon.
In the opinion of columnist Amos Harel, a specialist in military affairs at the newspaper "Haaretz", the confrontation with Iran was the second worst fiasco in the prime minister's long career, behind the Hamas massacre on October 7, 2023.
"Ending the war on these terms is not good news for any Israeli because Iran seems to have emerged from the conflict even stronger and more determined", wrote the columnist.
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Trump's initial objectives in relation to Iran were relegated and became a primary goal: the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
Although the terms of the agreement are not yet clear, the political costs could be high for the current government: the nuclear program has not been dismantled and the funds frozen to the Islamic Republic must be released.
Once again, there is the feeling of a loop in the cycle of tensions with Iran. But the war served to undermine the number of Netanyahu's allies in the US, as well as the influence he exercised over the American president.
The Israeli prime minister knew how to manage Trump's flattery and even nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize. In return, he was called a hero and had in the president a defender of pardoning his legal imbroglios due to corruption.
Although they publicly deny the rupture, both are heading towards a relationship that is, at the very least, deteriorated, despite the preservation of mutual interests between the two countries.
Netanyahu is now branded as crazy, complicated and without a shred of common sense, to quote the mildest adjectives uttered by Trump. Support for Israel has plummeted in the US. The prime minister is unlikely to have plausible arguments to convince the American president to embark on another military venture.
Declaring, however, Netanyahu's public humiliation at the end of his long political career in Israel is always premature. The vague content of the memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran may give it another chance of survival.

Source: G1