Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has come under fire from his political opponents after he appeared to abandon a threat to strike Hezbollah in Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, under pressure from President Trump.
Mr. Netanyahu said on Monday that he had ordered the Israeli military to target Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group, in the city. Hours later, Mr. Trump wrote on social media that he had spoken to the Israeli leader by phone, asking him not to conduct “a major raid of Beirut,” and that Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to stop shooting at each other.
While Mr. Netanyahu has not said publicly whether the operation was called off, his critics have accused him of ceding decision-making for the Israeli government to Mr. Trump. “A total vassal state,” said Yair Lapid, the leader of Israel’s opposition, in a post on social media.
Naftali Bennett, Mr. Netanyahu’s top political rival, who is running to replace him as prime minister in elections later this year, said the government had “lost control over Israeli sovereignty.”
The rebukes came at a moment of weakness for Mr. Netanyahu. He has been sidelined from negotiations between Washington and Tehran to end the war in Iran. And while the Israeli government wants to continue its fight against Hezbollah, Iran has insisted that an agreement include an end of the war on all fronts, including Lebanon.
Mr. Netanyahu has long spoken proudly of his closeness to Mr. Trump, but the Israeli leader’s threat on Monday morning and his apparent decision to reverse course later in the day revealed differences between him and the American president.
The backlash was not limited to Mr. Netanyahu’s opponents.
“Mr. prime minister, you said a strong prime minister says ‘yes’ to the president of the United States, when possible, and ‘no,’ when needed,” said Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far right minister of national security in Mr. Netanyahu’s government, in a post on social media.
“This is the time to say ‘no’ to our friend, President Trump,” he added. “This is the time to do what is needed and required to deliver a blow to Hezbollah.”
The latest war between Israel and Hezbollah broke out in early March after the armed group fired a volley of rockets and drones toward Israeli territory. Israel has since taken over swathes of southern Lebanon, and Hezbollah has fired thousands of rockets and drones toward Israeli civilians and soldiers.
