Netanyahu’s campaign against the Iranian nuclear program was silent with Trump

By TIA Goldenberg

Jerusalem (AP) – When the United States and Iran met for nuclear talks a decade ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took his agreement against an emerging agreement of the most public stages in the world, including in a ignited speech at the Congress considered as a direct challenge to the Obama administration because he concluded the talks.

Now, while the sides are seated to discuss a new agreement, Netanyahu has remained silent.

Netanyahu considers an Iran with nuclear weapons as an existential threat to Israel, and he is just as suspicious of any new American agreement with his enemine who may not meet his standards. However, he finds himself chained with Donald Trump in the White House.

Netanyahu does not want to publicly criticize a president who has shown broad support for Israel, whom he judges to be the greatest friend of Israel and who does not take criticism.

He “cannot do anything that goes against Trump. He is paralyzed,” said Yoel Guzansky, an Iranian expert from the Institute of National Security Studies, a reflection group based in Tel Aviv.

Israel is in a position of power against Iran after a series of strategic achievements in the last 18 months in the wars that have shaken the Middle East. He beat the allies of Iran in Lebanon, Gaza and Syria, and directly attacked Iran last year, neutralizing some of its main air defenses. Experts say that Israel now has an opportunity window for what could be an effective strike on Iranian nuclear installations, with a return of flowers perhaps less regional.

However, the chief of Israel was recently unable to galvanize Trump to prioritize a strike against Iran’s nuclear installations – which would probably depend on American military aid to succeed. The United States merchanting with Iran, Israel has little legitimacy to continue a military option in itself.

“Netanyahu is trapped,” said Eytan Gilboa, an expert in American-Israeli relations at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv. “He set up Israel’s position in relation to Iran to improve under Trump. In practice, it’s the opposite.”

DOSSIER – President Donald Trump listens as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in the eastern house on the White House, on February 4, 2025, in Washington. (AP photo / Evan Vucci, file)

File – On this photo published by an official website of the Iranian supreme chef’s office, the supreme chief, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, speaks during a ceremony meeting a group of civil servants, in Tehran, Iran, March 8, 2025. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP, file).

DOSSIER – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes a gesture while speaking before a joint meeting of the Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 3, 2015. (AP Photo / Andrew Harnik, file)

DOSSIER – President Barack Obama talks about the speech of the Congress of Iran and the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting with the defense secretary Ash Carter in the Oval Oval Office of the White House in Washington, March 3, 2015. (AP Photo / Jacquelyn Martin, file)

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DOSSIER – President Donald Trump listens as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in the eastern house on the White House, on February 4, 2025, in Washington. (AP photo / Evan Vucci, file)

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Netanyahu hoped for alignment with Trump on Iran

Netanyahu and his nationalist supporters hoped that Trump’s return to the White House would be advantageous because of his story of support in Israel. They thought that, under Trump, the United States could support a strike on Iranian nuclear installations.

But Trump’s approach in Iran – as well as on other questions, such as prices – has shown that the relationship is more complicated and that Trump’s interests are not aligning entirely with Netanyahu.

Netanyahu has long accused Iran of having developed a nuclear weapon and launched a global campaign against the Obama agreement. He painted the nuclear program as an existential threat to Israel and the world, and said that the agreement was too low to contain it. Israel remains the only state in the Middle East with nuclear arms, an advantage that he would like to keep.

With the solid encouragement of Netanyahu, Trump fell from the agreement concluded by Obama. And since his return to the White House, Trump has given Israel Libre that his war against Hamas in Gaza, has been gentle on the worsening of the humanitarian crisis in the territory and launched strikes against the Houthi rebels supported by Iran in Yemen, who have attacked Israel since the start of the war. Hamas has been appointed as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

But now that the United States has returned to the negotiating table with Iran, Netanyahu would risk endangering its good links with the president if he had to publicly oppose one of the main foreign policy initiatives of his administration.

The last time Netanyahu crossed the capricious Trump was when he congratulated Joe Biden for his electoral victory in 2020. Trump was apparently offended by perceived disloyalty, and their ties were lyophilized.

Israel communicates to Washington its priorities for any agreement. As part of this, he understood that if Israel chose to strike on Iran, this would probably do him alone – as long as negotiations were underway, according to an Israeli official who spoke under the cover of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy.

Netanyahu hopes for a strict agreement on the Iranian nuclear program

In a speech in Jerusalem this week, Netanyahu said he had discussed his conditions for an agreement with Trump. He explained that he should dismantle all the infrastructure of the Iranian nuclear program and that it should work to prevent Iran from developing ballistic missiles capable of delivering a bomb.