"We get along well. He knows who's in charge," Donald Trump said of his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu in an interview with the news site Axios last week.
But the question is whether they really get along as well as the president says.
When war broke out between Iran on the one hand and Israel and the United States on the other in February, the latter two presented a united front against Iran. But the relationship between Trump and Netanyahu has been tested in recent months, as Trump has sought to reach a ceasefire agreement with Iran. Netanyahu, on the other hand, has consistently tried to maintain the fighting with arch-rival Iran and opposed US attempts to de-escalate.
Took to the keyboard
In June, Israeli forces bombed the Lebanese capital, Beirut. At least three people were killed in the attacks, and Trump, who wanted to make a deal with Iran, took to the keyboard:
“This morning's attack on Beirut should not have happened, especially on such a special day, when we are so close to a peace agreement with Iran,” he wrote on Truth Social.
The phone call between the two leaders after the attack was less diplomatic. According to sources with insight, there was occasional swearing from the American president.
“Why are you blowing up buildings?” Trump asked Netanyahu, according to sources familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Stop blowing up buildings, Trump said.
Critical of F-35 sales
But the criticism is not one-sided. Netanyahu has appeared extensively in the American media ahead of and during the NATO summit in the Turkish capital, Ankara, this week. The message has been directed directly at President Trump: Do not sell the advanced F-35 fighter jet to Turkey.
"He (Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan) is not exactly a model ally of the United States. He threatens to destroy my country, the only Jewish state," Netanyahu said in an interview with CNN this week.
At the same time, Netanyahu, in the same interview, downplayed the differences between the two leaders.
He's the president of the United States. He does what's good for the United States. I'm the prime minister of Israel, I do what's good for Israel, and mostly these things coincide.
The meeting between the two leaders could take place as early as next week and will be the first since the meeting in the White House's so-called situation room in February, before the attacks on Iran began.
