In January 2024, the publication Axios reported that the United States president at the time, Joe Biden, was \u201crunning out of patience\u201d with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza had been raging for months by that point, and Biden was facing public backlash<\/a> over US support for the conflict.<\/p>\n Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n The assault would continue for the rest of Biden\u2019s term and bleed into the first 10 months of Donald Trump<\/a>\u2018s second presidency.<\/p>\n Since then, media outlets have continued to publish anonymous accounts of rifts and \u201cfrustrating\u201d calls between Trump and the Israeli prime minister. But US support for its Middle East ally has never wavered.<\/p>\n Another anonymously sourced report about a furious, expletive-laden call between US and Israeli leaders came out this week, and it spread rapidly across international media.<\/p>\n Axios reported on Monday that Trump called Netanyahu \u201cf***ing crazy\u201d and berated him over Israel\u2019s escalation in Lebanon.<\/p>\n Around the same time, an Israeli attack killed six people, including two children, in the southern Lebanese town of al-Marwaniyah.<\/p>\n Experts say that despite leaks of feuds and harsh words between US leaders and Netanyahu, policies are ultimately what matters, and they have changed very little.<\/p>\n Ryan Costello, the policy director at the National Iranian American Council Action (NIAC), said political observers have grown to \u201cmock\u201d reports of closed-door anger from US presidents against Netanyahu.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s really important is what actually happens in practice,\u201d Costello told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n Two administrations, same reports<\/p>\n Though there are reports of Trump giving Netanyahu a dressing-down, Isabelle Hayslip, an advocacy manager at the US-based rights group DAWN, said that US policy remains aligned with Israeli interests.<\/p>\n \u201cSingle-source reporting of Trump as a strongman who picks up the phone and yells at Netanyahu for undermining US policy is contradicted by the actual policy outcomes where Netanyahu gets exactly what he wants,\u201d Hayslip told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n \u201cTrump has no final say over Israeli actions. Like his predecessors, the president has proved completely unable to prioritise American interests, instead catering to Israel\u2019s expansionist whims.\u201d<\/p>\n The latest report comes as Trump faces increasing pressure from his Democratic rivals and segments of his base over his handling of the war on Iran, which he launched jointly with Netanyahu on February 28.<\/p>\n The conflict, which saw Iran close the Strait of Hormuz, has sent gasoline prices soaring in the US and fuelled inflation.<\/p>\n Critics have accused Trump<\/a> of allowing Israel to drag the US into a war that does not advance Washington\u2019s priorities.<\/p>\n With negotiations to end the war stagnating, Israel\u2019s escalation in Lebanon and its threat to bomb Beirut risks derailing the fragile truce that came into effect in April.<\/p>\n Iranian officials have suggested that they cut off contact with the US over the Israeli attacks in Lebanon.<\/p>\n Before the Axios report, Trump announced he had spoken to Netanyahu and an unidentified Hezbollah representative, and both sides agreed that \u201call shooting will stop\u201d.<\/p>\n But Netanyahu was quick to assert that the Israeli military \u201cwill continue to operate as planned in southern Lebanon\u201d, where it is deepening its invasion<\/a> and turning entire towns into rubble.<\/p>\n Advocates say Israeli atrocities in Lebanon and across the region could not have happened without US backing.<\/p>\n Since the start of Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, the US has provided Israel with nearly $25bn in military aid, helped fend off retaliatory Iranian attacks<\/a> against the country and vetoed several ceasefire resolutions at the United Nations Security Council.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, anonymous accounts that the US president is angry at Netanyahu have become a regular feature in the media.<\/p>\n Such reports are attributed to US officials, but it is unclear how leaks with a similar message on the same topic have continued across two administrations from different political parties.<\/p>\n \u2018Moderating the anger\u2019<\/p>\n Publicly, aides of both Biden and Trump have largely refrained from criticising Israel.<\/p>\n Trump has regularly praised the Israeli prime minister, arguing on more than one occasion that Israel would have ceased to exist without Netanyahu\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n In December, the US president also called the Israeli prime minister a \u201chero\u201d during a meeting in Florida<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re with you, and we\u2019ll continue to be with you,\u201d Trump told Netanyahu.<\/p>\n Two weeks earlier, Axios reported that the White House had \u201cscolded\u201d Netanyahu over Israel\u2019s ceasefire violations in Gaza.<\/p>\n \u201cThe White House message to Netanyahu was: \u2018If you want to ruin your reputation and show that you don\u2019t abide by agreements, be our guest, but we won\u2019t allow you to ruin President Trump\u2019s reputation after he brokered the deal in Gaza,\u201d the publication quoted a US official as saying.<\/p>\n Few people know the exact content of high-level calls at the White House. Sometimes, top officials, including members of the National Security Council, sit in on conversations between the president and world leaders after briefings.<\/p>\n Negar Mortazavi, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, a research nonprofit, said the leak about the tense call between Trump and Netanyahu may be aimed at making Trump look tough on Israel to quell outrage over the war.<\/p>\n \u201cIt could be sort of a way of moderating the anger or the blame at the US for continuing this unpopular<\/a>, illegal, unnecessary war,\u201d Mortazavi told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n She added that the message it sends is, \u201cLook, we\u2019re very angry at Israel. We yell at them. We call them names.\u201d<\/p>\n But Mortazavi stressed that policy is more important than rhetoric: \u201cDoes that change the facts on the ground?\u201d<\/p>\n Information war<\/p>\n For his part, Costello argued that the leak was likely directed at Iran.<\/p>\n \u201cI see this one primarily as a signal to the Iranians that Trump is serious, and he wants to insulate what\u2019s happening in Lebanon and Israel\u2019s attacks from the Iran negotiations,\u201d Costello said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt remains to be seen the extent to which that excoriation has actually led to a change in Israel\u2019s policies, and I think there is a strong incentive for continued defiance from Netanyahu.\u201d<\/p>\n Axios, meanwhile, has defended its coverage.<\/p>\n \u201cWe stand by our reporting, which by the way noted \u2018Trump and Netanyahu have had several tense calls in the past but have still coordinated closely on Iran and other issues,’\u201d Jake Wilkins, a spokesperson for the publication, told Al Jazeera in an email.<\/p>\n Mortazavi warned that all sides of the war on Iran are trying to influence public perceptions of the conflict.<\/p>\n She pointed to recent reports that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian<\/a> had resigned, a rumour that was promptly denied by his office.<\/p>\n