U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands during a joint press conference at the Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, on Dec. 29, 2025. (Credit: Jim Watson/AFP)
For decades, Benjamin Netanyahu has built much of his political career around a simple message: Iran is the gravest threat to Israel's existence, and diplomacy alone would never be enough to stop it. When war finally broke out, it seemed to prove him right. The joint military campaign led by the United States and Israel inflicted unprecedented damage on Iran’s military apparatus. But the diplomatic outcome now emerging risks, paradoxically, producing the very scenario the Israeli prime minister has spent years trying to avoid. Behind the headlines Trump implicitly acknowledges Iranian influence in the Middle East The memorandum of understanding reached between Washington and Tehran, set to be signed this week in Switzerland, has provoked a rare consensus within Israel’s deeply divided political class. Government ministers,...
For decades, Benjamin Netanyahu has built much of his political career around a simple message: Iran is the gravest threat to Israel's existence, and diplomacy alone would never be enough to stop it. When war finally broke out, it seemed to prove him right. The joint military campaign led by the United States and Israel inflicted unprecedented damage on Iran’s military apparatus. But the diplomatic outcome now emerging risks, paradoxically, producing the very scenario the Israeli prime minister has spent years trying to avoid. Behind the headlines Trump implicitly acknowledges Iranian influence in the Middle East The memorandum of understanding reached between Washington and Tehran, set to be signed this week in Switzerland, has provoked a rare consensus within Israel’s deeply divided political class. Government ministers,...
