Despite clashes with US presidents, Israel’s Netanyahu usually gets his way

JERUSALEM - A little over a month ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to have been shunted to the shadows by US President Donald Trump, who hopscotched the Middle East without visiting Israel, traditionally Washington's closest regional ally.

Worse still, from Mr Netanyahu's perspective, Mr Trump lifted sanctions on neighbouring Syria – something Israel opposed – and talked up the prospects of securing a nuclear deal with Iran, something the Prime Minister has always cautioned against.

Fast-forward five weeks, and the US has bombed Iran's main nuclear installations, fulfilling a decades-old dream of Mr Netanyahu to convince Washington to bring its full military might to thwart Tehran's atomic ambitions.

The US attack underscores a broader truth that has defined Mr Netanyahu's career: No matter how fraught his relationships with successive presidents, he normally ends up getting what he wants.

For over three decades, Mr Netanyahu has clashed – often spectacularly – with American leaders.

He has lectured them, defied them, embarrassed them publicly and privately. And yet, across Democratic and Republican administrations, US military aid has flowed largely uninterrupted to Israel.

Washington remains Israel's chief arms supplier and diplomatic shield.

"He probably has concluded that he always gets away with it," said a senior United Nations official in Jerusalem who declined to be named. "It's hard to argue otherwise."

Just one month ago, opposition leader Yair Lapid accused Mr Netanyahu of destroying Israel's relations with the US.

This weekend's action represents the closest US-Israeli military alignment yet against a common adversary.

Withstanding pressure

Mr Netanyahu's belief in his ability to advance his agenda, and withstand American pressure when needed, has deep roots.

Barely a month after becoming prime minister for the first time in 1996, he met US President Bill Clinton in Washington and immediately rubbed him up the wrong way.

"Who the f*** does he think he is? Who's the f***ing superpower here?" Mr Clinton asked his aides afterwards, according to US diplomat Aaron David Miller, who was present.

But vital US aid to Israel continued to flow – something that would remain a constant over the years.

Mr Netanyahu was voted out of office in a 1999 election and did not return to power until a decade later, by which time Mr Barack Obama, a Democrat like Mr Clinton, was in the White House.

Relations between the two turned openly hostile, initially over Israeli settlement building in occupied territory that Palestinians claim for a future stake – a constant thorn in US-Israeli relations.

Matters deteriorated further as Mr Obama entered negotiations with Iran to curb its nuclear drive - a project that Israel said is aimed at creating atomic bombs and that Tehran has said is for purely civilian purposes.

Mr Netanyahu spoke to Congress in 2015 at the invitation of Republicans to denounce the prospective deal, without informing the White House.

"(The accord) doesn't block Iran's path to the bomb; it paves Iran's path to the bomb," he said.

Mr Obama was widely reported to have been furious, but still, the following year Washington delivered the largest military aid package to Israel in US history – US$38 billion (S$49 billion) over 10 years.

Political analysts say Mr Netanyahu takes US support as a given, confident that backing from evangelical Christians and the small Jewish-American community will guarantee that Israel remains well-armed, however much he antagonises the White House.

Convincing Trump

When Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on Israel in October 2023, then president Joe Biden flew to Israel to show his support, authorising a huge flow of weapons to help with the conflict unleashed in Gaza.

But relations between Mr Netanyahu, a right-winger, and Mr Biden, a Democrat, deteriorated rapidly, as Washington grew alarmed by the spiralling number of civilian deaths and the burgeoning humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave.

Mr Biden held back on some heavy munitions deliveries and imposed sanctions on a number of violent Israeli settlers, so his defeat at the hands of Mr Trump in last November's presidential election was celebrated by Mr Netanyahu.

Finally, he had a Republican in office at a crucial moment for Israel.

However, things did not go smoothly, at least to start with.

Like Mr Biden before him, Mr Trump was unhappy at the protracted conflict in Gaza and then he blind-sided Mr Netanyahu during a meeting on April 7, when he revealed that he was launching direct talks with Tehran aimed at finding a diplomatic solution to the protracted nuclear stand-off with Iran.

But while Mr Trump publicly positioned himself as a peacemaker, Mr Netanyahu consistently pushed for military intervention.

Although it is unclear if Mr Netanyahu ever got him to say "yes" to Israel's war plans, it was at least not a "no", according to two senior US officials and a senior Israeli source.

As soon as Israel launched its aerial war on Iran in the early hours of June 13, Israel pushed the US to join in, urging Mr Trump to be on the winning side of history, two Israeli officials said last week.

"Mr President, finish the job!" read large billboards that have popped up in Tel Aviv.

The sense of relief when the US bombers struck Iran's most protected nuclear sites on June 22 was palpable.

"Congratulations, President Trump. Your bold decision to target Iran's nuclear facilities with the awesome and righteous might of the United States will change history," Mr Netanyahu said in a brief video address.

"May God bless our unshakeable alliance, our unbreakable faith," he concluded. REUTERS