By DANYA SAPERSTEIN
US President Trump accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being the reason for global hatred of Israel in an angry call Monday, Axios reported.
Earlier on Monday, Iran had threatened to stop negotiating with the US due to Israel’s action in Lebanon, prompting the call in which Trump at one point yelled at Netanyahu, “What the f*** are you doing?”
According to one US official, Trump felt that Netanyahu was reacting disproportionally to Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel, and called the prime minister “f*cking crazy.”
Trump objected to Israel destroying buildings to take out a single Hezbollah commander, and Israel’s threats against Beirut, Axios wrote.
“You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your a**. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this,” Trump told Netanyahu, according to Axios.
While Netanyahu released a statement after the call that Israel’s position “remains the same,” a US official told Axios that Trump had actually “steamrolled” Netanyahu.
“Bibi said, ‘OK, OK, just make sure everything is taken care of,'” Axios quoted the official as saying.
Another official said that this was one of Trump’s worst calls with Netanyahu since the start of his second term.
After the call, Trump announced that Netanyahu had “turned his Troops around,” after he asked him “not to go into a major raid of Beirut,” in a post on Truth Social.
In another post, Trump wrote that talks were continuing “at a rapid pace” with Iran.
THE JERUSALEM POST