US President Donald Trump has certainly aided Israel immensely since returning to office in January 2025. It’s unlikely that all of the hostages, both living and dead, would be back home in Israel without his efforts and determination.
Likewise, last June, Washington came to Jerusalem’s aid during the 12 Day War with Iran by launching Operation Midnight Hammer, which involved airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities, and helped bring that clash to an early end with a decisive victory for Israel.
Trump’s decision to join hand-in-hand in attacking Iran again last Saturday, with the onset of Operation Roaring Lion (Israel’s codename) and Operation Epic Fury (named by the US), demonstrates that the US president is well aware of the threat Tehran poses, not only to Israel and the region but to the United States.
Although a huge majority of Israelis support the current war, many Americans, both on the Left and the Right, oppose it, claiming that both Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are using the conflict as distractions to blur the domestic struggles both are facing, whether it be the US president’s embroilment in the Epstein scandal or the prime minister’s ongoing criminal trial.
The Jerusalem Post has and will continue to dismiss such claims and stand with the view that the war is necessary to remove the Iranian nuclear threat and to hopefully prompt regime change and remove the homicidal ayatollahs from power.
However, ascribing to that view becomes a challenge when it’s undermined by Trump himself.
Trump inserts himself into Israeli politics
On Thursday, he launched an unprecedented scathing attack on President Isaac Herzog in his call for an immediate pardon for Netanyahu, who is standing trial for alleged bribery, fraud, and breach of trust.
In an interview with N12’s Barak Ravid, Trump called Israel’s president “a disgrace” and outrageously accused Herzog of not acting on a pardon of Netanyahu for his own political gain.
“Every day, I talk to Bibi about the war. I want him to focus on the war and not on the f****** court case. I want the only pressure on Bibi to be the fighting against Iran,” Trump told Ravid.
Herzog is above reproach and has served, both in his previous political career and during his presidency, with the utmost integrity and professionalism, and Trump owes him an immediate apology.
It’s not the first time that Trump has interfered with Israel’s domestic affairs related to the Netanyahu trial. In February, he said that Herzog “should be ashamed of himself” for not granting a pardon to the prime minister.
And from the podium of the Knesset at the jubilant session marking the return of the hostages from Gaza last October, Trump called on Herzog to pardon Netanyahu, quipping, “Cigars and champagne, who the hell cares about that?”
Opposition leader Yair Lapid correctly responded to Trump’s interference, saying, “A country with national pride does not allow other countries to manage its internal affairs. Israel is not a protectorate.”
Lapid also alluded to the possibility that Netanyahu was behind Trump’s remarks in a coordinated effort to use the Iran war for his own personal benefit. Defense Minister Israel Katz, in an interview with N12 on Thursday, also raised the pardon issue but thankfully refrained from calling Herzog a disgrace.
We want to believe that both Netanyahu and Trump are waging war against Iran for the right reasons. But the American leader’s actions on Thursday and the prime minister’s quiet raise questions. To silence them, the US president needs to retract his misguided, at best, and malicious, at worst, words against Herzog and stop interfering in internal Israeli affairs.
And Netanyahu needs to risk the fury of his senior partner in the White House and unequivocally state that he respects the law of the land and relies on both the presidency and the judiciary to treat his case fairly and impartially.
Trump is right. Too many lives of both Israeli and American soldiers, Israeli civilians, and the Iranian people are at stake right now for the leaders of Israel and the US to be sidetracked by superfluous issues. That’s why he needs to remove himself from the conversation regarding the Netanyahu trial.