Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing sharp criticism at home after US President Donald Trump declared that Israel would halt plans to attack Hezbollah in Beirut, highlighting the pressure Netanyahu faces ahead of an election that polls suggest he may lose.
Trump announced on Monday that Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to stop attacks on each other, just hours after Netanyahu ordered new strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs. This move prompted a warning from Iran that Israel was jeopardizing Tehran's talks with the United States. Subsequently, Lebanon's government announced a new ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, under which Israel would cease strikes on southern Beirut and Hezbollah would halt attacks on Israel.
Political Challengers Accuse Netanyahu of Losing Control
Netanyahu's challengers in elections due by October accused the prime minister of acquiescing to Trump on national security issues. Naftali Bennett, a right-wing security hawk and former premier who also criticizes Netanyahu over Hamas militants' resurgence in Gaza, said: “The location is different, the story is the same. A government that has lost control of Israeli sovereignty.” Bennett and his coalition partner, centrist Yair Lapid, have pressed for strikes against Hezbollah. Lapid posted on X: “A full protectorate,” effectively accusing Netanyahu of allowing the US to dictate Israeli military policy as if Israel were an American client state.
Continued Conflict Despite Ceasefire
Israel and Hezbollah have continued to exchange fire despite an April 16 US-brokered ceasefire. The latest conflict began on March 2 when Hezbollah fired into Israel in support of Iran. Since then, Israel has deepened its invasion of southern Lebanon, displacing over a million people and killing more than 3,400 as it bombards areas it says are aimed at rooting out Hezbollah. Hezbollah has not released figures on its war dead. Hezbollah has fired rockets and explosive drones at Israeli troops and northern Israeli towns. Israel says 26 soldiers and four civilians have been killed since March 2.
Netanyahu disputes criticism of Israel's military operations in Lebanon, arguing that air strikes under his watch have dealt Hezbollah significant blows. After Trump's announcement of a new Israel-Hezbollah agreement, Netanyahu said Israel's stance in the conflict “remains unchanged.” He stated: “(If) Hezbollah does not cease attacking our cities and citizens — Israel will attack terror targets in Beirut.”
Military and Political Reactions
Israel's military has continued to carry out attacks on southern Lebanon since Trump's declaration. On Tuesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Israel had refrained from striking Beirut at the request of the US, but warned that any new Hezbollah attacks on northern Israel would trigger strikes on southern Beirut suburbs, considered a Hezbollah stronghold. Gadi Eisenkot, a former chief of staff of the Israeli military and a candidate for prime minister, said Trump's push for Israel to halt attacks was unreasonable. “There has never been an Israeli prime minister who accepted such a humiliating demand,” Eisenkot wrote on X.
The criticism underscores growing tensions within Israel's political system over the extent to which military decisions should be coordinated with its closest ally, the United States. Netanyahu's coalition partner Itamar Ben Gvir, the national security minister, said Israel should tell Trump: “no.” The English-language Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post wrote that Israel had “found itself in the humiliating position of having to seek American approval to defend its own citizens.” It added in an editorial: “The United States is now actively restraining Israel from taking decisive military action.”
