The relationship between Israel and the U.S. works because it is an alliance between sovereigns. The moment one begins dictating fundamental security decisions, the relationship becomes distorted.
Fully support Netanyahu. He acted wisely as a supreme leader of Israel. We have learned; The Allied won over the Nazies due to military power. So must be done with Iran’s proxies. The Soviet Union collapsed due to corruption and bankruptcy economy and got a new government constitution. Put Iran in same situation as well with international sanctions.
Trump doesn’t look like a ‘Winston Churchill’ anymore.
Nachum, you're 100% right that there is no defense for Trump making those comments publicly. Whatever discussions needed to happen should have happened behind closed doors. Saying it publicly accomplished nothing useful.
I say that as someone who strongly supports Trump. In my view, he has been the most pro-Israel and pro-Jewish president in American history. The record speaks for itself. But he is also human, he does make mistakes, and sometimes his tendency to speak off the cuff creates problems that didn't need to exist.
That said, I think it's important not to swing too far in the other direction. Israel is absolutely a sovereign nation and does not take orders from Washington. But good foreign policy also means understanding who your friends are and recognizing strategic realities.
The United States is not just another ally. It is Israel's strongest ally and the world's leading superpower. Israel needed American support during the recent conflict, just as America benefits from having a strong and reliable ally in the Middle East.
So yes, Israel must always make its own decisions. But Netanyahu also understands that maintaining a strong relationship with Washington is a vital Israeli interest. Sovereignty and partnership are not mutually exclusive.
Israel can survive without American approval. But the world would be a far more difficult place for Israel if the U.S.-Israel alliance were ever seriously weakened. That's simply reality.
I think Trump's remark was capitulation to the isolationists in the Republican party. It served him in that way. But clearly it does not serve Israel. That's okay too. It makes Israel look even stronger to go against Trump's wishes. It may be a win-win actually.
I still feel that current Trump/Bibi disagreement is out of character and feels staged. It satisfies the current Trump situation of showing critics that Israel is not dictating US policy, the midterm elections, and dealing with global economic impact of restricted trade among other factors. It satisfies Israel’s military aim to continue to disable the IRGC. I could be wrong but I am willing to wait and find out.
A lot of my MAGA supporting friends state the same thing. I am not sure I can buy into that anymore. Trump told the whole world that he wouldn't let Bibi go into Judea and Samaria when that is their land, deeded to them forever. Who does he think he is?
I get you. It’s getting tougher. Worst case scenario, it will force Israel to become independent financially and militarily. Israel is been taking the easy way of not producing the basic supplies and relying on only advanced technology. It happened again of not having the “heavy bombs”.
Do you remember what muzzie loving Obama did to Bibi? He treated Bibi like he was white trash, and then had him sign a 10-year contract that Israel would only buy munitions from the USA and couldn't make their own. Tuly Weisz or Pesach Wolicki reported on this, I forget which Rabbi.
Anyway, when brain dead Biden was illegally in office, Bibi sent funds for what they ordered and Biden purposely held up the deliveries. That "deal" Obama made expired and immediately Israel started factories to make what they needed, but they need to make everything on their own. America cannot be trusted to be their best friend.
Several of my research buddies who write articles like I do have come to the same conclusion, and that is that Trump is not what so many people still think he is. Actually, one need look at the people he's hired and you'll see that they aren't fit for the jobs. Bondi and Tulsi are gone and their replacements aren't any better. They can blame the choices on Lefty Susie Wiles, but the buck stops with Trump. We do not trust him one iota!
The best person he hired is Stephen Miller...I wish he was his Chief of Staff.
One should understand that the deal Obama presented was agreed to by the Israelis, probably, because it was cheaper to obtain American weapons granted by foreign trade agreements than to manufacture one's own. Assuming America is a reliable ally, it was not a bad deal. However, Israel, and the Jews in America, totally misunderstood the level of animus in the Democratic administrations toward Israel. The history of US-Israeli relations is replete with examples of anti-Israeli sentiment by key officials in American administrations, starting with Truman, who blockaded any munitions to be sent from America to Israel. The brilliance of Netanyahu has been to understand this fact, agree to what he must, and continue to act in Israel's true instance.
FDR wouldn't even take the children at the behest of Eleanor. And he turned away 937 Jewish refugees on the St. Louis. Neither Cuba nor America would take those people. Few survived, only a few. I'll tell you one President who looked after Israel. That was Richard Nixon. When PM Golda Meir called him in the middle of the night and asked for help, he went against the advice of his cabinet and Kissinger and sent plane load after plane load. The Yom Kippur War in 1973. Operation Nickel Grass was the largest airlift in American history (surpassing the Berlin Airlift) and successfully reversed the momentum of the war, allowing Israeli forces to push back Egyptian and Syrian lines.
It was all because he remembered his mother's words. She would read him the Hebrew Bible every night before he went to sleep and she told him once that someday he may be called on to help Israel. He remembered those words when Golda called him and did everything he could to help. For that reason, I think of President Nixon as one of the best. His mother's name was Hannah.
I agree with you. However, I think that what really happened regarding the Yom Kippur war airlift was that Secretary of Defense Schlesinger, born Jewish, but a Jew hater, refused to fly the munitions to Israel. Kissinger insisted that they do so. Nixon broke the impasse between the two. The resolution was that the re-supply was by Israeli pilots flying American planes.
The most important thing to remember that US administrations change every 8 or 4 years and that in itself should be enough to truly gain independence in all relationships.
I wish my dear friend, Norm Resnick, was still alive. You reminded me of him because he always signed letters and emails to me, "Normie." I still miss him terribly...a brilliant guy, a professor at Colorado University and a fabulous talk show host. My husband and I spent time with them one weekend and enjoyed a lovely shabbat dinner with their family.
Totally. You said it better than my comment by including that it shows Israel is not dictating US policy, midterms, economics. I only mentioned the isolationists. This is more complete. Also - I'll repeat the other side of the coin - it makes Israel look stronger to "defy" Washington.
Israel needs to get used to ‘defying’ america, and the rest of the world, and do what needs to be done.
The west has consistently stopped Israel definitively putting an end to the wars, terrorist attacks, and land grabs and is constantly interfering in a way they would never dare with any other country.
And, quite frankly, who the f**k does trump think he is? The orange messiah?
Well done Bibi, you did exactly what you needed to do. Now keep doing it 🇮🇱🇮🇱🇮🇱🇮🇱🇮🇱
Problem is Trump won't be President forever, despite Robert DeNiro's promise that he'd never step down. What awaits the U.S. following this presidency can be a bit fear-inducing for me, considering what we've had to deal with prior to Trump and the paid provacateurs currently busy undermining his presidency.
Bibi announced this week that Israel has control of 60% of Gaza. They should have had control of 100% of Gaza 2 years ago, but Trump wanted a “deal” with Hamas. I am a Trump supporter generally, but he apparently doesn’t understand the Muslim fanatic mindset. He is falling into the same trap with a much larger and far more dangerous enemy. It seems that the Gaza lesson wasn’t learned. Truly sad.
I hear you, but Israel — for 2 million reasons — has never actually wanted full administrative control of Gaza. Let Trump's latest grand plan run its course and fail on its own terms. Once that collapses, Israel can do what it does best: targeted elimination of Hamas leadership without the burden of occupation. We can't be Gaza's welfare state indefinitely, and we shouldn't have to be.
Trump need to get his advisers to comment about game theory to win a war against religious fanatics with a lifetime of investment in deception. It's not a secret but Trump is clueless, parochial and has no genuine commitment
The word "vassalage" says it all. When Trump said "I call the shots," he wasn't speaking as a partner — he was speaking as an imperial manager. Allies advise, persuade, and coordinate. They don't order a sovereign democracy to absorb ballistic missile attacks and stand down.
The cruelest irony is that this is the same administration that rightly mocked Obama and Biden for appeasing Tehran. Now they're extending patience to the regime firing the missiles while pressuring the democratic ally absorbing them. That's not a reversal of weakness — it's a continuation of it under different branding.
The sovereignty argument here is unimpeachable. If China fired missiles at U.S. territory and a foreign leader told Washington to stand down, it would be laughed out of the room. Israel deserves the same standard — no more, no less.
And then there's the strategic illiteracy. Deterrence isn't a mood — it's a math problem. Every actor in the region is watching and calculating. An unanswered missile barrage doesn't signal restraint; it signals permission. Netanyahu understands the neighborhood. Washington, as Kaplan writes, periodically forgets it lives in Washington.
The deal obsession is the tell. When you're more desperate for an agreement than the other side is, you've already lost the negotiation. "Never again" was always about political independence as much as physical survival. Netanyahu's refusal wasn't defiance for its own sake — it was the only response consistent with what a Jewish state was created to be.
I really hate to even think this, even hate to write this in a comment, but maybe--just maybe--Trump is desperate for a deal because he and his team realize they cannot win without a long "forever war" and many American military deaths and possible a larger world conflict. Or maybe he thinks we cannot win against no matter what. Maybe missile defense really is depleted. Maybe there are just too many Iranian drones and missiles to deal with. And so finding a bad deal is, to Trump, the only solution at this time. I think the fear of actually losing this war is the only reason Trump would back away from this amazing opportunity to change the world for the better and create a New Middle East. It kills me, because the opportunity will never come again and Iran will become more dangerous than before. I hope I'm wrong, but I can't think of any other reason Trump would give up now.
Trump has lost his stomach for conflict, and sadly has lost his vision when it comes to Iran. As for his public spat with Netanyahu and folk thinking Trump is vindictive, Vance once called Trump "America's Hitler," but this didn't stop Trump from naming Vance his choice for V.P. Sometimes he ignores friends in an effort to placate foes and render them former foes. He is unpredictable. Israel needs to do what is best for Israel, the United States will do what Congress and the President decide is best for the United States.
Fully support Netanyahu. He acted wisely as a supreme leader of Israel. We have learned; The Allied won over the Nazies due to military power. So must be done with Iran’s proxies. The Soviet Union collapsed due to corruption and bankruptcy economy and got a new government constitution. Put Iran in same situation as well with international sanctions.
Trump doesn’t look like a ‘Winston Churchill’ anymore.
Thank You
he was never Winston, he's T.A.C.O.
Nachum, you're 100% right that there is no defense for Trump making those comments publicly. Whatever discussions needed to happen should have happened behind closed doors. Saying it publicly accomplished nothing useful.
I say that as someone who strongly supports Trump. In my view, he has been the most pro-Israel and pro-Jewish president in American history. The record speaks for itself. But he is also human, he does make mistakes, and sometimes his tendency to speak off the cuff creates problems that didn't need to exist.
That said, I think it's important not to swing too far in the other direction. Israel is absolutely a sovereign nation and does not take orders from Washington. But good foreign policy also means understanding who your friends are and recognizing strategic realities.
The United States is not just another ally. It is Israel's strongest ally and the world's leading superpower. Israel needed American support during the recent conflict, just as America benefits from having a strong and reliable ally in the Middle East.
So yes, Israel must always make its own decisions. But Netanyahu also understands that maintaining a strong relationship with Washington is a vital Israeli interest. Sovereignty and partnership are not mutually exclusive.
Israel can survive without American approval. But the world would be a far more difficult place for Israel if the U.S.-Israel alliance were ever seriously weakened. That's simply reality.
I think Trump's remark was capitulation to the isolationists in the Republican party. It served him in that way. But clearly it does not serve Israel. That's okay too. It makes Israel look even stronger to go against Trump's wishes. It may be a win-win actually.
You wrote: "In my view, he has been the most pro-Israel and pro-Jewish president in American history."
Just noting: Every President since LBJ has claimed that he is the best friend Israel has ever had in the White House.
So true. That's why words are meaningless. Action is all that matters.
Iran doesn't want peace and cannot be trusted. Israel has every right to defend itself against this evil terrorist regime. Long live Israel 🇮🇱 💙
Outstanding piece..Never Again!
Netanyahu must destroy Israel's enemies - Hezbollah, Iran military and Hamas so Israel can continue to live and prosper.
I still feel that current Trump/Bibi disagreement is out of character and feels staged. It satisfies the current Trump situation of showing critics that Israel is not dictating US policy, the midterm elections, and dealing with global economic impact of restricted trade among other factors. It satisfies Israel’s military aim to continue to disable the IRGC. I could be wrong but I am willing to wait and find out.
A lot of my MAGA supporting friends state the same thing. I am not sure I can buy into that anymore. Trump told the whole world that he wouldn't let Bibi go into Judea and Samaria when that is their land, deeded to them forever. Who does he think he is?
I get you. It’s getting tougher. Worst case scenario, it will force Israel to become independent financially and militarily. Israel is been taking the easy way of not producing the basic supplies and relying on only advanced technology. It happened again of not having the “heavy bombs”.
Do you remember what muzzie loving Obama did to Bibi? He treated Bibi like he was white trash, and then had him sign a 10-year contract that Israel would only buy munitions from the USA and couldn't make their own. Tuly Weisz or Pesach Wolicki reported on this, I forget which Rabbi.
Anyway, when brain dead Biden was illegally in office, Bibi sent funds for what they ordered and Biden purposely held up the deliveries. That "deal" Obama made expired and immediately Israel started factories to make what they needed, but they need to make everything on their own. America cannot be trusted to be their best friend.
Several of my research buddies who write articles like I do have come to the same conclusion, and that is that Trump is not what so many people still think he is. Actually, one need look at the people he's hired and you'll see that they aren't fit for the jobs. Bondi and Tulsi are gone and their replacements aren't any better. They can blame the choices on Lefty Susie Wiles, but the buck stops with Trump. We do not trust him one iota!
The best person he hired is Stephen Miller...I wish he was his Chief of Staff.
One should understand that the deal Obama presented was agreed to by the Israelis, probably, because it was cheaper to obtain American weapons granted by foreign trade agreements than to manufacture one's own. Assuming America is a reliable ally, it was not a bad deal. However, Israel, and the Jews in America, totally misunderstood the level of animus in the Democratic administrations toward Israel. The history of US-Israeli relations is replete with examples of anti-Israeli sentiment by key officials in American administrations, starting with Truman, who blockaded any munitions to be sent from America to Israel. The brilliance of Netanyahu has been to understand this fact, agree to what he must, and continue to act in Israel's true instance.
FDR wouldn't even take the children at the behest of Eleanor. And he turned away 937 Jewish refugees on the St. Louis. Neither Cuba nor America would take those people. Few survived, only a few. I'll tell you one President who looked after Israel. That was Richard Nixon. When PM Golda Meir called him in the middle of the night and asked for help, he went against the advice of his cabinet and Kissinger and sent plane load after plane load. The Yom Kippur War in 1973. Operation Nickel Grass was the largest airlift in American history (surpassing the Berlin Airlift) and successfully reversed the momentum of the war, allowing Israeli forces to push back Egyptian and Syrian lines.
It was all because he remembered his mother's words. She would read him the Hebrew Bible every night before he went to sleep and she told him once that someday he may be called on to help Israel. He remembered those words when Golda called him and did everything he could to help. For that reason, I think of President Nixon as one of the best. His mother's name was Hannah.
I agree with you. However, I think that what really happened regarding the Yom Kippur war airlift was that Secretary of Defense Schlesinger, born Jewish, but a Jew hater, refused to fly the munitions to Israel. Kissinger insisted that they do so. Nixon broke the impasse between the two. The resolution was that the re-supply was by Israeli pilots flying American planes.
The most important thing to remember that US administrations change every 8 or 4 years and that in itself should be enough to truly gain independence in all relationships.
yes, that's how the "Lobby" sees it....
I wish my dear friend, Norm Resnick, was still alive. You reminded me of him because he always signed letters and emails to me, "Normie." I still miss him terribly...a brilliant guy, a professor at Colorado University and a fabulous talk show host. My husband and I spent time with them one weekend and enjoyed a lovely shabbat dinner with their family.
Totally. You said it better than my comment by including that it shows Israel is not dictating US policy, midterms, economics. I only mentioned the isolationists. This is more complete. Also - I'll repeat the other side of the coin - it makes Israel look stronger to "defy" Washington.
Israel needs to get used to ‘defying’ america, and the rest of the world, and do what needs to be done.
The west has consistently stopped Israel definitively putting an end to the wars, terrorist attacks, and land grabs and is constantly interfering in a way they would never dare with any other country.
And, quite frankly, who the f**k does trump think he is? The orange messiah?
Well done Bibi, you did exactly what you needed to do. Now keep doing it 🇮🇱🇮🇱🇮🇱🇮🇱🇮🇱
a kish af deine keppeleh🍷.
I’m sorry, I don’t know what that means.
But as there’s a glass of wine emoji at the end of it, I’m guessing it’s friendly! 😁
L’chaim!🍷
A kiss on your head.
Thank you for telling me!
What a sweet thing to say to someone!
yes.
Problem is Trump won't be President forever, despite Robert DeNiro's promise that he'd never step down. What awaits the U.S. following this presidency can be a bit fear-inducing for me, considering what we've had to deal with prior to Trump and the paid provacateurs currently busy undermining his presidency.
Bibi announced this week that Israel has control of 60% of Gaza. They should have had control of 100% of Gaza 2 years ago, but Trump wanted a “deal” with Hamas. I am a Trump supporter generally, but he apparently doesn’t understand the Muslim fanatic mindset. He is falling into the same trap with a much larger and far more dangerous enemy. It seems that the Gaza lesson wasn’t learned. Truly sad.
I hear you, but Israel — for 2 million reasons — has never actually wanted full administrative control of Gaza. Let Trump's latest grand plan run its course and fail on its own terms. Once that collapses, Israel can do what it does best: targeted elimination of Hamas leadership without the burden of occupation. We can't be Gaza's welfare state indefinitely, and we shouldn't have to be.
Trump need to get his advisers to comment about game theory to win a war against religious fanatics with a lifetime of investment in deception. It's not a secret but Trump is clueless, parochial and has no genuine commitment
Everybody on this thread is an armchair general. I hope that your stated opinion is self-endearing.
And 'branded' enough have we been.... to task JEWS to endure this is cruel.
Let it being revealed, in plain sight before man and G-D,
day by day serve to
strengthen beyond
all measure
the hadar of our united souls!
🇮🇱
ISRAEL is ever in my prayers from the bitterest ends of the diaspora with my kin but sleeping in the dust.....
AM YISROEIL CHAI
The word "vassalage" says it all. When Trump said "I call the shots," he wasn't speaking as a partner — he was speaking as an imperial manager. Allies advise, persuade, and coordinate. They don't order a sovereign democracy to absorb ballistic missile attacks and stand down.
The cruelest irony is that this is the same administration that rightly mocked Obama and Biden for appeasing Tehran. Now they're extending patience to the regime firing the missiles while pressuring the democratic ally absorbing them. That's not a reversal of weakness — it's a continuation of it under different branding.
The sovereignty argument here is unimpeachable. If China fired missiles at U.S. territory and a foreign leader told Washington to stand down, it would be laughed out of the room. Israel deserves the same standard — no more, no less.
And then there's the strategic illiteracy. Deterrence isn't a mood — it's a math problem. Every actor in the region is watching and calculating. An unanswered missile barrage doesn't signal restraint; it signals permission. Netanyahu understands the neighborhood. Washington, as Kaplan writes, periodically forgets it lives in Washington.
The deal obsession is the tell. When you're more desperate for an agreement than the other side is, you've already lost the negotiation. "Never again" was always about political independence as much as physical survival. Netanyahu's refusal wasn't defiance for its own sake — it was the only response consistent with what a Jewish state was created to be.
I really hate to even think this, even hate to write this in a comment, but maybe--just maybe--Trump is desperate for a deal because he and his team realize they cannot win without a long "forever war" and many American military deaths and possible a larger world conflict. Or maybe he thinks we cannot win against no matter what. Maybe missile defense really is depleted. Maybe there are just too many Iranian drones and missiles to deal with. And so finding a bad deal is, to Trump, the only solution at this time. I think the fear of actually losing this war is the only reason Trump would back away from this amazing opportunity to change the world for the better and create a New Middle East. It kills me, because the opportunity will never come again and Iran will become more dangerous than before. I hope I'm wrong, but I can't think of any other reason Trump would give up now.
Trump has lost his stomach for conflict, and sadly has lost his vision when it comes to Iran. As for his public spat with Netanyahu and folk thinking Trump is vindictive, Vance once called Trump "America's Hitler," but this didn't stop Trump from naming Vance his choice for V.P. Sometimes he ignores friends in an effort to placate foes and render them former foes. He is unpredictable. Israel needs to do what is best for Israel, the United States will do what Congress and the President decide is best for the United States.
Agreed!
sucka! Trump is Israel's greatest president......