Iran: here is how Netanyahu tries to rally Trump to his war

Since the attack on Iran on June 13, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has multiplied efforts to convince Donald Trump and an American public opinion skeptical of engaging in war alongside Israel.

During his frequent telephone calls with Mr. Trump or in interviews, Mr. Netanyahu alternates praise and deference to the leader of the world’s leading power. He insists a lot on the fact that the strikes on Iran benefit the Americans.

“Do you want these people to have nuclear weapons and the means to hit you?” He asked during an interview with the American channel Fox News on Sunday. “Today is Tel Aviv. Tomorrow, it’s New York, “he said on ABC News the next day, saying Iran was working on longer-range missiles capable of reaching the American coast in the future.

The exchanges between the two men have not always been the most harmonious, even if the Israeli Prime Minister was welcomed twice at the White House since the Republican investiture in January.

According to the “New York Times”, which quotes anonymous sources in Washington, Mr. Netanyahu asked Donald Trump in April to deliver US anti-bunker GBU-57 bombs to Israel, only capable of destroying the deeply buried Iranian nuclear installations-before being refused.

Trump was partly re-elected for his opposition to any American interventionism and his criticisms against the supposedly “go-war” politics of the Democratic Party.

Several Trumpist figures of the right “Maga” (“Make America Great Again”) expressed their fierce opposition to any American intervention like Vice-President JD Vance, Steve Bannon, former adviser to Mr. Trump, or the ex-presenter of Fox News Tucker Carlson.

But on Wednesday, the former real estate-magnat did not exclude directly involving the United States: “I may do so, maybe not,” he told journalists. This question will be decided “over the next two weeks,” he said on Thursday.

For Yossi Mekelberg, analyst at Chatham House, Benjamin Netanyahu turned out to be skillful with Donald Trump, by flattering his “vanity” and “exploiting his weaknesses”.

Once the Washington “approval” was received to attack Iran, “he knew Trump’s personality and knew that the latter could rally to his cause if he could take advantage of it in one way or another,” he told AFP.

The American president welcomed the Israeli military campaign, combining targeted assassinations of military officials, destruction of air defenses and strikes on nuclear sites.

Eliot A. Cohen, former adviser to the US State Department and International Relations Expert, believes, however, that Mr. Netanyahu’s influence should not be overestimated.

However, Mr. Netanyahu’s current lobbying could succeed for several reasons, says Cohen.

The Israelis “ask for nothing other than the bombing of (the factory of) Fordo”, a uranium enrichment factory buried a hundred meters deep, about 150 km south of Tehran, he underlines. “No one speaks of invasion”.

“Many Americans, if not most, understand that a nuclear Iran is particularly dangerous,” he adds.

According to a survey carried out last weekend by the Yougov Institute for the magazine “The Economist”, half of the Americans consider Iran as an “enemy” country and a quarter as “hostile”. On the other hand, only 16% of Americans “think that the American army should intervene in the conflict between Israel and Iran”.

The majority of Democrats (65%), self -employed (61%) and Republicans (53%) remain opposed to military intervention, specifies this survey.

On his Podcast “War Room”, Steve Bannon accused Mr. Netanyahu on Wednesday of having launched a war which he is unable to end. “Do not come and see us to finish it,” he said.