Benjamin Netanyahu has had a decades long obsession with destroying Iran. Knowing his country couldn’t do it he’s spent those decades trying to get the United States to do it for him. Back when Trump initiated the Iran War Netanyahu talked about getting Trump to finally pull the trigger, something Trump strongly denied and for a time such talk died down. Now however, with Israeli elections coming Netanyahu is openly using his having ‘manipulated’ Trump and the U.S. into war to help his Party and himself stay in power. In short ‘Bibi is bragging’ about his ability to get our country to do his bidding!
Netanyahu has needed to stay in power to avoid serious legal problems. I can’t help but wonder how much he and Trump have bonded in private discussions about how heading up our respective governments have shielded each from legal consequences including prison. Now Netanyahu and his Likud Party will be facing voters again on October 27. While many Israeli’s have rallied around a leader in war (Gaza, and now Iran) he’s got plenty of folks who think he allowed the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks to happen as a means of holding on to power – a ‘we have to stand together’ type thing. To maintain his power in the face of flagging support for his country due to how he’s handled Gaza, Netanyahu turned to an even larger enemy to rally support.
Yes, he’s spent years working on Trump (including helping him get elected both times) to take out Iran, or at least its government. It didn’t happen in the first Trump term but Trump 2.0 has been a different animal from the start. THIS time Trump put in some effort to ensure there would be no “adults in the room” to rein him in. He installed as many incompetents or sycophants (in some cases both!) as he could including at the DOD. People who would if not tell him what he wanted to hear, at least keep their mouths shut and not offer the kind of advice suggesting he think things through more. Or suggesting something might not work, or negative consequences etc.
Netanyahu could see this as clearly as anyone else and he pounced. Trump was clearly feeling his oats when it came to use of military force. Blowing suspected drug runner boats out of the ocean (with expensive missiles) had SecDef Hegseth beating his chest and pointing to how much more ‘warrior’ like he’d made the military. Then there was that massive strike (which used up most of our best deep strike/bunker buster bombs) we made on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Ok, so it didn’t ‘obliterate’ them but it did set Iran back and out planes got in and out mostly unscathed. It’s a no-brainer that Netanyahu would flatter Trump by telling him how awesome he and the U.S. was militarily while simultaneously talking up Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
AND warning they were despite our success way too close to developing a nuclear bomb to be left alone. (I wonder if sometimes Bibi would draw a cartoon style bomb like he showed to the U.N. while talking to Trump?) Anyone who doesn’t think Netanyahu helped convince Trump to do what Trump probably wanted to do with Hegseth and Rubio (although Rubio wanted a Cuba invasion) egging him on to ‘put our military to good use’ is kidding themselves. Netanyahu might have at Trump’s request toned down the boasting months ago, but Bibi is in a political fight of his own. If he’s not going to spend the rest of his life in court (and maybe prison?) Bibi has to stay where he is, hence his and his Party’s talk about forming a “broad national government” as he continues to slip in the polls. As the linked Jerusalem Post article says it’s as much about him (and the Likud Party) not losing as it is about winning enough to form another governing coalition with Bibi in charge:
“If [Netanyahu] were in a much better position in the polls, I’m quite convinced we wouldn’t hear that this was the Likud’s main election slogan,” Kenig noted, adding that there appears to be a shift in Netanyahu’s strategy away from attempting to win to “just trying not to lose.”
Netanyahu may be aware that he “doesn’t have the cards in his hands to win,” and could instead be focusing on not losing, Kenig said.
The question might no longer be whether Likud can remain the largest party, but whether Netanyahu can assemble a coalition with himself at the helm.
Wow. I only saw the just linked article after reading another one talking about the reaction to Netanyahu’s newest gambit of ‘Bibi Bragging’ – about getting our country to do to Iran what Israel can’t! Raw Story reminds us back in the spring Trump got all huffy about reports Netanyahu talked him into Iran:
A White House insider told Bloomberg in March that President Donald Trump’s decision to launch a war against Iran was “partly motivated by pressure from outside allies” — chief among them being Netanyahu. Speculation that Netanyahu had “pulled” Trump into the deeply unpopular conflict was so strong that Trump felt compelled to respond: “Israel never talked me into the war with Iran,” he wrote in a social media post in late April.
That was then. Even Bibi might have realized that for all his ability to get Trump’s and our media’s attention boasting about it was diplomatically tone deaf. However this is now and Netanyahu is going to look out for his own interests and if it costs others (like Trump) he doesn’t care – that he figures his their problem. Still, it caused a shock when Netanyahu bluntly bragged on live TV about “how he manipulated Trump”:
Netanyahu appeals to Israeli voters by boasting that he manipulated Trump:
“it took a long time to get the US to come to its senses” but I finally got it to attack Iran due to my “influence” over its leaders through “1000 hours on American television” pic.twitter.com/hwrswfkbv2
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) August 31, 2026
Will this help Netanyahu who is underwater in polls in his own country? That remains to be seen. It’s safe to say plenty of American’s are tired of him, and more importantly of U.S. leaders too willing to if not give him carte blanche and/or political cover under the guise of overall support for Israel at least shut up/look the other way. If this gets legs in the U.S. which is far from sure given Netanyahu’s and AIPAC’s media contacts it’s going to hurt Trump (and the GOP) and that hurt will extend to Netanyahu. Israeli’s know deep down that without us the State of Israel would have ceased to exist long ago. Bibi Netanyahu might have made the biggest gaffe of his life with this boasting because it has in fact gotten noticed:
“The gall. In English, Netanyahu lavishes praise on U.S. leaders. In Hebrew, he boasts of how he manipulated them,” Thakker wrote in a report published in Zeteo Tuesday.
“Netanyahu explicitly cites how the U.S. media has served as a compliant springboard, a vessel for his influence operation on, if not the populace, at least the consultants and members of Congress who engage with cable news more than their actual constituents.”
Breck Worsham, a prominent right-wing influencer and ex-Trump supporter, expressed shock at how Netanyahu appeared to openly brag “on how he manipulated Trump,” as did journalist Max Blumenthal.
“Netanyahu appeals to Israeli voters by boasting that he manipulated Trump,” Blumenthal observed.
Let’s be clear. Trump has never been one to think things through, to take a good look at an entire set of circumstances and weigh benefits vs. costs/consequences. No, he’s always been more of a ‘this will make me look good’ (at least for now) type of guy whether it was in his business/TV career or in politics. When it comes to Iran it’s not like Trump would have needed a lot of convincing, especially with an idiot like Hegseth at the Pentagon cheerleading, eager to ‘show off’ his transformed ‘Warrior’ military. Alas, there’s a huge difference between shooting up suspected drug runner boats on the open ocean and a war with a country that has the ability to shoot back. Not to mention an awful lot of experience being at war.
However Trump thought it would be cool to ‘take out’ a regime that’s been a thorn in most of the world’s side for decades. He thought it would be easy. A little ‘shock and awe’ and Iran’s leadership would crumble. And that their people would rise up, trusting that the U.S. would have their backs. Of course Iranians overall know history better than Trump or many Americans do. They watched Bush 41 betray Iraqis and his son Bush 43 do the same. Like most of us they also realize Trump’s word is worthless. Add in a deep seated hatred of the U.S. that goes back longer than most people reading this have been alive there was never a chance in hell Trump would inspire the Iranian people to rise up and take on the Revolutionary Guard.
Trump got played by Netanyahu. You know it as well as I do. So does everyone else, including in those rare moments when he’s unable to delude himself from the truth Trump too. Having people openly asking about it and worse, if the chattering class on TV starts talking about it will provoke another outburst from Trump that will do him more harm than good. If we’re lucky it will happen in the next week, just in time for that GOP Midterm Convention down in Texas and put the entire GOP Congressional delegation on the spot.
