Haaretz: Netanyahu’s mouthpieces turn on Trump, revealing a deeper Israeli ingratitude

Vance on Tuesday described the critics as having fallen for “Iranian propaganda,” adding that “they’re proposing an endless conflict. They want this to go on until every bomb has dropped or until every Iranian is dead.”

Vance, whose skepticism toward foreign interventions is part of his own American nationalism, makes a correct observation here: It was never going to be enough for Israel. It is perfectly logical for Vance and his boss to look at these outbursts and conclude that Israel is profoundly ungrateful for what the U.S. did in launching this war.

What does Benjamin Netanyahu really think of the deal struck between the man he calls Israel’s “best friend ever” in the White House and the Iranian regime that he says is led by a “modern Hitler”?

The answers were not in the prime minister’s Monday evening press conference.

Emerging from nearly 24 hours of silence after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that an agreement with Tehran to end the war had been reached, he faced the cameras to bend reality to fit his existential fiction, telling Israelis: If not for me, you would all be dead by now.

As for the deal, Netanyahu praised the president’s “courage” in launching the war in late February while saying that he and Trump “don’t always see eye to eye.” Trump, for his part, had remarked the day before that Netanyahu “has no fucking judgment” after Israel attacked Beirut just hours before the deal was due to be signed.

Anyone familiar with Netanyahu knows that listening to him speaking is rarely the best way to understand where he stands. For that, he has his zealous media mouthpieces – whether on far-right Channel 14 or on mainstream networks brought in to “balance” the panels.

Those cheerleaders opted to address Trump in his own language – not English, but profanity.

Leading the pack was Yinon Magal of Channel 14, who called the president a “loser,” Vice President JD Vance a “scumbag,” and referred to Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner as “Jewboys.” Amit Segal of Channel 12 and Shimon Riklin of Channel 14 both described the deal as a “total surrender,” with Riklin going as far as to call the United States “treacherous” for signing it.

Perhaps Netanyahu’s thinking is best reflected in the observations of a very close associate, political macher Jacob Bardugo, who referred to Trump and Vance as “the modern Chamberlain.” He described the deal as “worse” than Barack Obama’s 2015 agreement. He went on to say that “seeking salvation in Washington is fundamentally misguided” and that “relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from elsewhere.”

Responding on behalf of the Trump administration to attacks from the Israeli right and U.S. neoconservatives, including Magal, Vance on Tuesday described the critics as having fallen for “Iranian propaganda,” adding that “they’re proposing an endless conflict. They want this to go on until every bomb has dropped or until every Iranian is dead.”

Vance, whose skepticism toward foreign interventions is part of his own American nationalism, makes a correct observation here: It was never going to be enough for Israel. It is perfectly logical for Vance and his boss to look at these outbursts and conclude that Israel is profoundly ungrateful for what the U.S. did in launching this war.

The saga exposes ever more how Israel’s post-October 7 security doctrine has been dangerously delusional. Driven by an ultranationalist ideology, it treats limitless violence as the pathway to achieving all its fantasies – from toppling the Iranian regime to emptying Gaza of Palestinians and building settlements in southern Lebanon.

At the same time, Netanyahu’s opposition rivals don’t only fail to challenge his narcotic addiction to war – they typically criticize him for not going further. It’s clear that the major flaws of Israel’s security paradigm are not limited to the Netanyahu camp, but extend to the very people who hope to replace it later this year.

The American reckoning with Israel’s recklessness should mark a turning point for both Republicans and Democrats as they prepare for the generational handover leading up to the 2028 presidential election. If Israel no longer seeks American “salvation” unless it serves its own destructive ambitions, then the U.S. should learn at least one lesson from this war about itself and the allies it chooses to fight for.