Early fears that the US president would “turn” on Israel have become a resounding strategic blow with the leak of the harsh phone call. The operational restraint in Beirut and the jarring tones from the White House now place the flagship project of rolling back Iran’s nuclear program and striking Tehran under a major question mark.
The Israeli leadership had early concerns about a scenario in which US President Donald Trump would "turn" on Israel, and there is no way to downplay the scale of the strategic blow contained in the "shouting call" Trump held Monday night with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and especially in its publication.
This war dragged on for quite some time largely because of Trump himself, who apparently believed it would be much faster. His administration officials did not foresee the Iranian regime's ability to ignore its military defeat and economic collapse, and to keep playing to the limit the remaining cards it held in the Strait of Hormuz and against the Gulf states.
Israel had warned, mainly during the latest round of negotiations, that Iran was seeking to drag out time in order to benefit from the unfreezing of funds that would help the regime recover. But Israel's firm opposition to the memorandum of understandings on the table triggered significant anger among the officials in the US administration promoting the move, and sparked suspicion that Israel was trying to torpedo it.
That is exactly how Washington interpreted Israel's expanding offensive in Lebanon. And although the administration knew in advance of Israel's intention to strike in Beirut because of Hezbollah's continued fire, the call between Trump and Netanyahu took a difficult and negative turn after Iran threatened to abandon the diplomatic contacts.
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