In recent weeks, President Trump’s strong support of Israel has been challenged by his increasing irritation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Now that we are on the verge of a historic breakthrough with Trump’s brilliant construct of a deal Hamas has accepted, Netanyahu is about to face the greatest challenge of his life.
Let’s first review the recent history.
On Tuesday, September 9, 2025, U.S. military intelligence spotted Israeli fighter jets flying east toward the Persian Gulf. Unsure of the mission, U.S. military intelligence sought clarification from the Israeli government. Axios reported that by the time Israel responded, missiles were already in the air, aimed to take out Hamas leaders attending a meeting in the Qatari capital, Doha.
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Axios further reported that the “news stunned the White House and infuriated some of Trump’s top advisers because it came as the U.S. was waiting for Hamas to respond to President Trump’s new proposal for peace in Gaza.” According to Axios, the Hamas officials were meeting to discuss Trump’s proposal. Axios also commented that Qatar was the seventh country Israel has bombed since October 7, 2023. (Note: Axios later changed its reporting to say that Netanyahu had, in fact, spoken to Trump before the attack.)
According to the BBC, Netanyahu had not bothered to clear the strike in advance with Trump. Informed of the strike by the U.S. military, Trump was infuriated. The BBC reported that while six people were killed in the attack, the Hamas leaders survived. The BBC further reported that Trump called the Israeli air attack “unfortunate,” saying the attempt to kill the Hamas leaders “does not advance the goals of either Israel or America.”
According to ABC News, on the evening of September 9, 2005, Trump, flanked by Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, gave an impromptu presser to reporters outside a Washington, D.C., restaurant. “I’m not thrilled by the whole situation,” Trump said. ABC also reported comments Trump posted on his social media platform: “I was very unhappy about it, very unhappy about every aspect, and we’ve got to get the hostages back, but I was very unhappy about the way that went down.” Finally, ABC added to the story comments White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt made in the Brady Briefing Room that afternoon:
This morning, the Trump administration was notified by the United States military that as Israel was attacking Hamas, which very unfortunately was located in a section of Doha, the capital of Qatar, unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a sovereign nation and very close ally of the United States that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker peace does not advance America’s goals.
On September 17, 2025, Saudi Arabia signed a mutual defense pact with Pakistan, the only nuclear-armed Muslim country—an agreement that would never have been signed without the approval of President Trump. This agreement came on the heels of the displeasure of both Trump and the infuriated Muslim nations in the Gulf region. With Pakistan’s nuclear umbrella now stretched over Saudi Arabia, the message was clear. Israel had better think twice about attacking Muslim nations in the Middle East without first getting a green light from President Trump himself.
About the same time, Charlie Kirk, Patrick Bet David, and Megan Kelly, all traditionally strong supporters of Israel, began criticizing the Israeli government, suddenly and surprisingly reflecting Trump’s dissatisfaction with Netanyahu.
On Friday, October 3, 2025, after Hamas agreed to participate in the Gaza peace talks that Trump engineered, Trump called Netanyahu to celebrate the good news. Axios reported that Netanyahu told Trump Hamas’s agreement was “nothing to celebrate, and it doesn’t mean anything.” Axios reported that Trump fired back, “I don’t know why you’re always so f***ing negative. This is a win. Take it.” (Note: Trump has denied this report.)
Now for the challenge Netanyahu faces.
Within hours of the hostage release, violently radical forces within Hamas plan an attack on Israel designed to provoke a military response from Netanyahu that will scrap the Trump-engineered peace deal. Hamas will calculate an attack intended to have an existentially threatening impact that will trigger once again the horror of October 7.
Truthfully, there is only one course of action open to Netanyahu. Regardless of what Hamas does, Netanyahu must not overreact. Most certainly, Netanyahu must call Trump before doing anything. Trump will take Netanyahu’s phone call anytime now, on a 24/7 basis. The world is on the verge of dismantling Hamas. Netanyahu must act with the wisdom of Solomon to avoid taking action that will turn world opinion against Israel at the moment we have the possibility of entering a new era in Middle East history.
Trump has masterfully crafted a global message aimed at achieving peace through economic prosperity. He has advanced the Abraham Accords as a methodology to get the Muslim nations of the region to accept Israel as a Jewish state, preferring to engage in economic activity with Israel rather than to continue the repeated wars in the region that, since 1948, have been aimed at wiping Israel from the map. Netanyahu needs to understand that Trump views himself as a historic peacemaker who deserves a Nobel Prize. After all, Trump has hinged his career on his fame as author of his 2009 bestseller book, Trump: The Art of the Deal.
Netanyahu must not risk alienating Israel’s only faithful ally in the world. Without Trump’s enthusiastic support, the next shoe to fall will be Congress threatening to cut off the funds Israel needs to defend itself in a still-hostile region. It’s time Netanyahu abandons any illusion that he can force Trump’s hand by unilaterally taking military action against Muslim states in the Middle East.
After three decades in which Netanyahu has been Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, having held the office now three times, he is obviously a patriot and a national hero. Unfortunately, Netanyahu only has two choices. The first, continuing down the path of irritating Trump, or holding his temper long enough to allow Trump the opportunity to respond to Hamas such that the world sees Hamas’s true colors.
Suppose Trump continues down the path of publicly criticizing Netanyahu. In that case, the Hamas-loving mainstream media will happily jump on the bandwagon of destroying Israel’s image in the minds of 2026 mid-term voters. The university crowd will rejoice, adding intellectual gravitas to mainstream media anti-Israel “genocide” narratives.
Netanyahu does not have long to decide his fate. Netanyahu must understand that Trump and the MAGA movement could lose the 2026 midterm elections if the Gaza war resumes. Netanyahu must realize that should Democrats control Congress in 2026, a Democrat-controlled Congress will return to supporting Tehran in anticipation of winning back the presidency in 2028 on a rising global tide of antisemitism.
In the next two weeks, as the negotiations continue in Egypt with Hamas, Netanyahu must acquiesce to Trump’s leadership guiding the Gaza initiative to a successful conclusion.
Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D., is an American author and political commentator who has authored three books on Iran: Jerome R. Corsi, Atomic Iran (2005); Jerome R. Corsi and Michael Evans, Showdown with Nuclear Iran: Radical Islam’s Messianic Mission to Destroy Israel and Cripple the United States (2009); Jerome R. Corsi, Why Israel Can’t Wait: The Coming War Between Israel and Iran (2009).