CNN Correspondent Jeremy Diamond Q&A with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu
CNN Correspondent Jeremy Diamond Q&A with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu
02:46
It’s no surprise that some of the first words out of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s mouth at Thursday’s press conference were “Under President Trump’s visionary leadership.”
Netanyahu had one primary goal in mind: to lavish praise on the US president and parrot White House messaging. As the war in Iran reaches the three-week mark, neither Netanyahu nor President Donald Trump are showing any intention of seeking an off-ramp, especially after Tehran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz and attacked Gulf energy facilities.
Like Trump, Netanyahu leveled criticism at countries that aren’t joining the war effort. “If leaders are honest, they would understand that we’re not only fighting our fight, we’re fighting their fight.”
Like Trump, Netanyahu portrayed the war as starting nearly 50 years ago with the Islamic revolution in Iran, accusing the regime of having “waged war against America and Israel and the people of Iran for 47 years.”
And like Trump, Netanyahu made it clear that it’s the US leading the war effort, not Israel. “He’s the leader. I’m, you know, his ally. America is the leader.”
Coming into the press conference, the biggest apparent disagreement had been about Israel’s strike on Iran’s South Pars natural gas infrastructure. Trump claimed the US knew nothing about it, even though American and Israeli officials say the attack was coordinated and the US was aware. Here, Netanyahu was careful with his wording. “Israel acted alone,” he said, which doesn’t say anything about the coordination around what we already knew was a unilateral strike.
Despite planning for several more weeks of war and thousands of targets, Israeli officials have long believed this war will end when Trump decides he’s won. That’s what happened in June to end the 12-day war between Israel and Iran.
One of Netanyahu’s apparent goals behind the press conference was to keep Trump involved in the war for as long as possible. Now, Israel believes Trump may be ready for a longer war. The Iranian strikes on energy infrastructure around the Gulf, which sent gas prices soaring in the US, strengthened Trump’s resolve, a senior Israeli official told CNN. “The event in (the Strait of) Hormuz is dangerous in the long term for US interests,” the official said.