The prime minister seemed genuinely elated on Tuesday after he and the US president met at the White House. Contrary to reports ahead of the meeting, Netanyahu said he was not seeking to pull the United States back into an all-out war. Instead, he wanted to see eye-to-eye with Trump on what happens if the talks to end the war fail.<\/p>\n
\t He told ABC News in an interview he was in lock-step with Trump over the three options ahead: \u201cOne, to indeed succeed making a deal; two, to continue a blockade; three, to take military action,\u201d Netanyahu said. \u201cAnything that will produce the end of Iran\u2019s nuclear program is what we want. That\u2019s our common goal. We talked about it.\u201d<\/p>\n The problem for Netanyahu is that the deal Trump seeks is anything but satisfying to Israel: The Memorandum of Understanding Vance reached in June, just weeks before the war resumed, allows Iran a stake in controlling \u2014 and even profiting from \u2014 the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway through which one-fifth of the world\u2019s petroleum transits, a prerogative the Islamic Republic never before enjoyed.<\/p>\n Privately, Israeli officials have said they don\u2019t expect the deal to happen, and that Trump will eventually turn to options two and three, which the Israelis favor. But Trump\u2019s popularity is cratering ahead of critical midterm elections, inflation is not abating, and even as Iran takes shots at ships in the Strait of Hormuz and its US-allied neighbors, Trump keeps banking on a deal.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are very friendly negotiations going on,\u201d he said Monday, the day Netanyahu arrived. \u201cI think there\u2019s a good chance that something could happen.\u201d<\/p>\n But diplomacy wasn\u2019t the only concern during Netanyahu\u2019s visit. Domestic politics dogged Netanyahu in the US capital. Opposition Leader Yair Lapid was also in town. Both were ostensibly there for the funeral of South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a pro-Israel stalwart who backed the Iran war. Lapid, in a talk to The Atlantic Council, took shots at Netanyahu\u2019s public diplomacy, saying his attacks on Democrats who were critical of Israel were making the country more isolated.<\/p>\n \t Press releases from Netanyahu\u2019s office sought to reinforce his status as the explainer-in-chief: He met with prominent senators; he met with Cabinet officials; he met, above all, with Trump.<\/p>\n Yet these releases undercut any claim Netanyahu might have had to the prominence he once enjoyed in the American mind.<\/p>\n The single Democratic senator he met with was John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, whose robust support for Israel makes him an outlier in his party \u2014 something Fetterman repeatedly emphasized in the chat Netanyahu\u2019s office posted. \u201cIt\u2019s been disappointing as a Democratic politician, how our party continues to behave,\u201d Fetterman said.<\/p>\n Lapid, by contrast, posed for a photo with Democratic senators, including some who have recently criticized Israel stridently, like Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia. \u201cBoycotting those who oppose you is not the way,\u201d Lapid said on X. \u201dRepair relations with both parties. It\u2019s not always fun, but that\u2019s what it takes. Not by whining and not by boycotts.\u201d<\/p>\n \t Netanyahu\u2019s failure to engage with the American left was also evident in a video of his meeting with evangelicals. \u201cI\u2019m very grateful to you for your consistent support, for the constancy of your friendship, and now it\u2019s time to fight, fight, fight,\u201d he said, evoking Trump\u2019s famous call when he escaped an assassin\u2019s bullet in 2024.<\/p>\n That prompted Mike Evans, an author who is an outlier among evangelicals for his stridency in advocating for extreme right positions, to lash out at the left using apocalyptic language. \u201cWe are fighting right now against the dark side, the leftist, godless dark side, but by the grace of God, we\u2019re going to win this battle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Netanyahu also took on Mamdani, who has called for his arrest, likening his administration of the city to the Nazi era in an interview on Fox News. Mamdani\u2019s wish was never going to come through \u2014 he ultimately acknowledged he had no power to arrest Netanyahu \u2014 yet his sentiment had staying power: A poll showed 49 percent of Americans agreed that Netanyahu should be arrested.<\/p>\n Linsey Davis, the ABC reporter who interviewed Netanyahu, pressed him on Israel\u2019s plummeting popularity. Netanyahu blamed the rise of social media and said it concerned him \u2014 but notably did not explain how he planned to counter what he described as a propaganda threat to American and Israeli interests.<\/p>\n \t \u201cI think there\u2019s been a change because of the proliferation of social media and the fact that sovereign countries have manipulated bot farms and other things, and we can see a direct relationship between the proliferation of social media and the decline in support for Israel,\u201d he said. \u201cDoes it concern me? Yes, yes it does. And I want bipartisan support for Israel because I think that\u2019s the fundament of our national security.\u201d<\/p>\n Netanyahu could point to one seeming public diplomacy success: He met with Vance, likely to be a frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination in 2028, and the vanguard of the GOP sector that is growing disaffected with Israel. A US official told Axios the meeting was \u201ccordial and productive,\u201d diplomatic-speak for not warm.<\/p>\n As for the flurry of photo-ops the prime minister\u2019s office sent out from the trip, the one-on-one with Vance was not among them.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident \u2013 ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded \u2013 I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.<\/p>\n There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.<\/p>\n As a Times of Israel reporter, I\u2019m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit\u2019s. But my colleagues and I can’t do this alone. If you value work like this, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to keep real human reporting like this going.<\/p>\n \u2014 Stav Levaton, military reporter<\/p>\n \t\t\t
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\n\t\tPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and US President Donald Trump meet in the Oval Office on July 28, 2026. (GPO)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26209681709159.jpg\")
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\n\t\tUS President Donald Trump, US Vice President JD Vance, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Eric Trump attend the funeral of US Senator Lindsey Graham, at the Washington National Cathedral, July 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP\/Alex Brandon)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/731943-e1785339108632.webp\")
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\n\t\tOpposition Leader Yair Lapid (2nd from left) poses with Democratic Party Senators (from left) Richard Blumenthal, Jacky Rosen, Maggie Hassan, and Tim Kaine, during a meeting in Washington, in a photo released July 28, 2026. (Office of Yair Lapid)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26195616139541.jpg\")
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\n\t\tAnti-Israel, pro-Palestinian US activist Mahmoud Khalil, center right, listens as other people speak during a news conference in New York, July 14, 2026. (Seth Wenig\/AP)<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\tWe can’t do this work alone.\t\t\t<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Untitled-design-4-200x200.jpg\" "\\"\\"\/")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\tYes, I’ll join\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n