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Episode details

World Service,08 Jun 2026,24 mins

The President's Path: Why did Trump and Netanyahu clash over the Iran war?

The Explanation

Available for over a year

Caitriona Perry, Sumi Somaskanda and Bernd Debusmann unpack the extraordinary falling-out between President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - a reportedly "blazing row" that both men have since confirmed. Trump was left "perturbed" that Israeli operations in Lebanon risked derailing his Iran negotiations. But it isn't the first time he has vented at Netanyahu in public. Both insist they still speak almost daily and remain close. But American and Israeli interests in the Iran war are increasingly diverging, US opinion has turned - Pew now finds around 60% of Americans hold an unfavourable view of Israel, up from the low 40s before the 2023 war in Gaza - and influential MAGA voices like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens are openly questioning the alliance. With Netanyahu accused at home of turning Israel into a "vassal state", his resistance to a two-state solution stalling Trump's cherished Abraham Accords, and the war itself looking like a strategic failure, is the "ironclad" US-Israel relationship finally starting to crack?

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