US President Donald Trump opened up his comments to the press with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office on Monday by patting himself on the back for his friendship toward Israel.
In a statement that many Israelis would agree with, he said, “We are a friend of Israel, as you know. I would say that I am by far the best president that Israel has ever even thought of seeing.”
Trump said Israel is in a very difficult neighborhood and added, “We are helping them, and, likewise, they have been helping us very much.” That acknowledgment of reciprocity – too often overlooked – is welcome.
When it was Netanyahu’s turn to speak, he, too, opened by praising the president’s friendship: “You have been a remarkable friend of the State of Israel; you stand by us, you are standing with us, you are a great, great champion of our lives.”
Shortly thereafter, Trump announced that the US would begin negotiations with Iran on Saturday over its nuclear program. That announcement raised the question: “Is this how Israel’s greatest friend behaves?”
Netanyahu heard of the negotiations and, aside from a quick glance at his aides, neither protested nor expressed concern.
Both the announcement and the prime minister’s silence reveal how different the US-Israel relationship is today compared to the Obama years, the last time a US president directly engaged with the Iranians.
This was not the first time Netanyahu sat in the Oval Office and listened to a US president speak of talks with Iran. In September 2013, Netanyahu was there when then-president Barack Obama, following a meeting with the prime minister, revealed that the US and Iran had already been negotiating for five months. Those talks were held without Israel’s knowledge.
That secrecy marks a key difference. Obama kept Israel in the dark, and those talks ultimately led to the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal signed against Israel’s wishes and despite its deep misgivings.
In contrast, Trump announced to Israel his intention to negotiate with Iran before the talks began, thereby allowing Israel some input. That is a significant shift and helps explain Netanyahu’s muted public reaction.
There were no anonymous “senior sources” this time briefing journalists that engaging with Iran now would let Tehran off the hook precisely when it is at its weakest militarily in years and when the capabilities of its proxies (Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Syria, and Iraqi militias) have been severely degraded.
No one was shouting that this was a moment for increasing pressure, not for diplomacy. “Senior officials” were not warning that Iran would exploit the talks to stall until reaching a nuclear point of no return or until it rebuilt the air defenses Israel wiped out last year.
Why wasn't anyone making these arguments to Trump?
Neither Netanyahu nor anyone around him was making these arguments. Why not? Because Trump, through numerous actions since taking office in January, has proven himself a stalwart supporter.
But that support comes with a cost. In this case, the price is a loss of some autonomy. Given everything Trump has done for Israel, it is now politically unthinkable for Jerusalem to say “no” to this president.
Had Obama or former president Joe Biden announced direct talks with Iran, Netanyahu and his allies would have slammed the move. But not with Trump – a reminder that even the warmest friendships come with strings attached. In this case, that string is an inability to object.
Compounding the situation is that unlike during much of the Obama years when Republicans controlled the House, Senate, or both and served as a counterweight to Democratic control of the presidency, today, Republicans hold both the White House and Congress. Netanyahu cannot go around the president’s back to allies in Congress to try and overturn any of Trump’s policies as he did with Obama because Republicans control both the presidency and the legislature.
A new reality was on display in the Oval Office on Monday: unreserved friendship from the president for Israel but a friendship that comes at the cost of a degree of independence.
Under Obama, Netanyahu pushed back – publicly, loudly, repeatedly. Under Trump, that pushback is gone, and that silence is telling. There are tremendous benefits to having a strongly supportive president in Washington. But those benefits come with a price: less room to dissent and less space for Israel to assert its own redlines when they diverge from Washington’s.