The writer may soon be forced to eat his words—and hopefully so, because the country comes first. But at least until Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s modest “Wings of Zion” plane touches down at Ben-Gurion Airport, it seems he has suffered a humiliating, unprecedented triple blow from US President Donald Trump.
Netanyahu took off from Hungary, having met his friend Viktor Orbann, puffed up with pride. With his usual arrogance, he declared that he would be the first world leader to meet with Trump following the shocking imposition of a 17% tariff on Israeli goods.
One could easily imagine the victory video Netanyahu would release after the visit: “Today, I bring great news to the citizens of Israel. No other nation could even dream of such a thing. Thanks to the personal friendship between President Trump and myself, the tariff has been reduced by 82%, now standing at just 3%. Thank you, President Trump!”
Instead, there was silence.
The second issue—far more critical than the first, second only to the immediate return of all 59 hostages—is Iran. After the world saw the extent of US forces moved into the region, clearly signaling not intimidation but a decisive intent to strike, it appeared Netanyahu had traveled to finalize plans with Trump. For years, Netanyahu has thundered about the Iranian threat, terrifying the public and posturing as the heroic defender of Israel. But in practice? Just talk—at least so far.
Missed historic opportunity
He missed the historic opportunity to launch a strike on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and topple the Nazi-like ayatollah regime, the epicenter of Islamist terror, during the transition from Biden to Trump. One could imagine another Bibi-style video: “I can’t divulge what was said in my meetings with President Trump. I can only promise: Iran will not obtain nuclear weapons. That day is very near.”
Instead, we got a pre-recorded statement full of excuses. And excuses, as we know, are a poor substitute for action.
The third humiliation: Erdogan. The Turkish president is a known and obsessive hater of Israel, driven by religious fanaticism and deep-rooted Islamist antisemitism. He warmly embraces Hamas terrorists, hosts them in Ankara as honored guests, and seizes every opportunity to spew venom at Israel.
And yet—during a live broadcast, with Netanyahu sitting right beside him—Trump gushed over his deep friendship with Erdogan. It was a moment hard to believe. Just imagine the video Netanyahu, then opposition leader, would have released had this happened to Prime Minister Avigdor Liberman, Gantz, Bennett, or Lapid:“Today, the prime minister of Israel was publicly humiliated by the greatest of Israel’s allies, President Trump. That could never happen to me. This is a severe blow to national security caused by the weakness and fecklessness of our prime minister. I call on him, from Jerusalem, to use his return flight to write a letter of resignation and apology to the citizens of Israel and call immediate elections.”
Instead, we got silence.
It’s as if the league’s top-ranked soccer team came to play the bottom seed, needing only a draw to win the championship—only to get trounced 3–0 and lose the title that was already in its hands.
Netanyahu lost 3–0—on tariffs, Iran, and Erdogan—but we’re the ones paying the price.Let’s hope we wake up one morning soon to discover that behind closed doors, things were actually resolved in the opposite direction.
The writer is a strategic communications consultant, Peer-Levin Communications