Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has finally replied to reports suggesting that tensions surfaced during a recent phone call with United States (U.S) President Donald Trump.
The reported confrontation occurred amid ongoing regional conflicts involving Lebanon and efforts to stabilize negotiations with Iran.
According to multiple sources, Trump expressed strong frustration over Israel’s military operations and threats to strike Beirut, using blunt language that quickly leaked to the press.
U.S. officials described the call as expletive-laden, with Trump allegedly telling Netanyahu he was “fucking crazy” for escalating actions against Hezbollah at a sensitive time. The president reportedly warned that such moves could isolate Israel globally and undermine U.S. diplomatic efforts.
Trump, himself, has also confirmed a tense exchange with Benjamin Netanyahu.
In an interview published Wednesday in the New York Post, Trump was asked about the conversation he had with Netanyahu over the phone on Monday.
“You said, ‘Are you f-ing crazy? What are you f-ing doing? I helped you stay out of jail.’ Is that true? Did you speak to him in those terms?” the interviewer asked.
“I did,” Trump responded. “I was a little bit perturbed at his constant fighting with Lebanon.”
“I said, ‘Bibi, we gotta stop this.’”
Trump went on to say he had a “very good relationship” with Netanyahu. “We’ve done well together… I like Bibi a lot.”
Meanwhile, Netanyahu has publicly replied to Trump over the rising tensions.
Netanyahu downplayed any hint of a schism with Trump, saying that while they sometimes have “tactical disagreements,” they “agree on the main things.”
Those include preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and threatening Israel with it, he said.
“Sometimes we have, as in the best of families, you have these tactical disagreements,” he said. But “we always find a way to work them out, and we do so as great friends.”
“We can disagree in the morning” and find common ground by the afternoon, he said.
Netanyahu added he speaks with Trump “once every two days.”
He said the two leaders “have common goals … we want to achieve them.”
Netanyahu also went on to assert that Trump has been the “greatest friend to Israel.”
Pan-Atlantic Kompass reports that the heated confrontation comes after Iran said it will not agree to a deal with the United States to end the war that Trump and Netanyahu launched in late February unless a ceasefire also covers Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March in pursuit of the Iran-aligned Hezbollah militia that fired across the border in support of Tehran.
