Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made a career out of surviving. Indicted on corruption charges, deserted by allies, condemned by courts, none of it has derailed him.
His lifeline has been war. Not victory, not security, but the perpetual threat of annihilation, from Hamas, from Hezbollah and from Iran. As long as Israel is launching brutal attacks, mostly killing civilians, Netanyahu governs.
The moment peace takes hold, he faces his own people in a courtroom. That calculus explains everything: why ceasefires collapse, why deals evaporate, why US mediators return from the region empty-handed.
It explains why, despite five increasingly furious confrontations from US President Donald Trump, the man who promised to be Israel's greatest patron in the White House has found himself played at every turn by a prime minister who cannot stop the wars he needs to keep himself out of prison.
June 1, 2026: ‘You're f**king crazy’
On 1 June 2026, all diplomatic decorum collapsed. With Israel threatening to bomb Beirut, a move that had prompted Iran to threaten abandoning nuclear negotiations entirely, Trump called Netanyahu in what US officials described as one of the worst calls between the two leaders since Trump returned to office.
According to Axios, Trump told him: "You're f**king crazy. You'd be in prison if it weren't for me. I'm saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this."
He reminded Netanyahu of his personal support during the corruption trial and warned that striking Beirut would further isolate Israel globally.
One official said Trump "steamrolled" him, "Bibi said, OK, OK, just make sure everything is taken care of." But Netanyahu's public statement said something different: "Our position remains the same."
Netanyahu, who is wanted by the ICC over war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, said Israel would attack Beirut if Hezbollah did not stop, and that southern Lebanon operations would continue.
In the gap between those two accounts lies the entire story of Netanyahu's relationship with Trump, an Israeli politician who says yes to the most powerful man in the world, then finds a way to do exactly what he wanted anyway.
May 2026: ‘Hair on fire’
In May 2026, Trump was deep in nuclear negotiations with Iran, the kind of diplomacy that would strip Netanyahu of his most powerful justification for perpetual conflict.
Their phone call on May 20 was described by sources as "difficult," with one source telling Axios that Netanyahu's "hair was on fire" afterwards.
Trump told Netanyahu that mediators - Qatar, Pakistan and others - were working toward a letter of intent between Washington and Tehran.
Netanyahu, who wants to resume strikes on Iran to "further degrade its military capabilities," made clear his deep scepticism. He was so alarmed that his ambassador in Washington informed US lawmakers of his concerns.
The embassy denied it. But Netanyahu's behaviour followed a familiar pattern: publicly deferring to Trump while privately lobbying to blow up whatever deal was on the table.
Trump, in public, insisted Netanyahu "will do whatever I want him to do", a claim that, by June 2026, would be undermined by events.
April 2026: Lebanon on the brink
With Gaza still under daily Israeli bombardment, Netanyahu opened a second front or rather escalated the existing one, in Lebanon, where Israeli strikes had killed over 300 people in a single day.
Trump called him on April 9 in what sources described as a "tense" exchange. The US president pressed Netanyahu to scale back Israeli strikes against Hezbollah; Netanyahu, according to an Israeli source, came to understand that if he refused to seek direct ceasefire talks with Lebanon, Trump might simply declare one without him.
Faced with that threat, Netanyahu agreed to initiate talks. But days later, Israel was expanding its ground operation in southern Lebanon, proof that for Netanyahu, agreeing to talks and halting operations are entirely separate matters.
His office dismissed reports of a "tense" call as "fake news" and called the exchange "friendly." It was not.
October 2025: ‘Damn pessimist’
After months of resumed brutality against civilians in Gaza, Trump brokered a second Gaza ceasefire in October 2025. But reaching it required another confrontation. When Hamas issued what Trump read as an opening for a deal, he called Netanyahu on October 4 only to be told that Hamas's response was "a rejection" and "meant nothing."
According to a US official cited by Axios, Trump fired back: "I don't understand why you're always such a damn pessimist. This is a victory. Take it."
"Bibi, you can't fight the world," Trump told him, as he later recounted to TIME magazine.
After pressure, Netanyahu relented, and a second ceasefire was announced. Yet by the close of 2025, Israel had still not moved toward phase two, the full withdrawal from Gaza that the agreement required. Hamas has since stated publicly that Israel must comply with all phase one terms before any discussion of disarmament can begin.
Netanyahu keeps procrastinating, his troops still deployed, the second stage of the deal frozen in place.
January 2025: ‘You have no choice’
On January 10, 2025, Trump made his first major intervention through his special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, pressing Netanyahu to accept a Gaza ceasefire deal, the same framework Joe Biden's team had spent months constructing.
Netanyahu pushed back but ultimately yielded not out of conviction, but because, as Trump put it, "there is no other choice, with me you have to be okay."
The ceasefire took hold, and hostages began coming home. But within six weeks, in March 2025, Netanyahu unilaterally shattered it, ordering the military back into Gaza and unleashing fresh bombardment.
The Trump administration, which had publicly staked its credibility on the deal, blamed the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.
Netanyahu had done precisely what he always does: accepted pressure gracefully and then dismantled its outcome the moment the cameras moved on.
