Is Trump losing patience with Israel?
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Welcome to The World in 10. In an increasingly uncertain world, this is The Times' daily podcast dedicated to global security. Today with me, Tom Noonan and Toby Gillis. Israel is under growing pressure. Some of its key allies, the UK, France and Canada, have publicly condemned Benjamin Netanyahu's government and its offensive against Hamas in Gaza.

Ambassadors have been called in for criticism. Trade talks have been cancelled. There's been special leaders' statements too. The UN has warned of thousands of starving children. Now, Israel's most important ally, the United States, hasn't gone that far in public. But it is reported that Donald Trump has told officials he expects Netanyahu to wrap up the war.

So, is the President losing patience with Israel? Our guest today is The Times' Middle East correspondent, Samer Al-Atroosh. Samer, let's start with that public condemnation which has come from the likes of the UK and France and Canada over the last couple of days. Obviously, these are traditional allies of Israel and pretty strong ones at that, but not at the level of the United States. So, does their criticism actually make any difference to Israel's thinking?

I think, yeah, certainly to some parties in the Israeli government, I don't think to all, right? Because, you know, this is an unusual Israeli government in that it is a highly ideological party.

to an extent that I don't think we've seen in the past when it comes to, you know, you have fringe elements that were, you know, until a few years ago, just considered outside the pale. I mean, they weren't seen as legitimate politicians to be, you know, sitting in the government. And, you know, you have the finance ministry, you have, which has a lot of say over Israeli policy in the West Bank. You have the national security minister who controls the police.

And you have a prime minister who is very, very keen on staying in power.

for various reasons. So I think for some of these people, they don't really care what the UK and France think. For someone like Benjamin Netanyahu, I think he thinks this could be a storm in a teacup, they'll get over it. But there are other people, and plenty of other people in Israel, both in government bodies and in the public, who really are recoiling at the idea that their country is becoming increasingly isolated. And to hear this from

Countries such as Britain, particularly. And also, you know, there's been very strong signals from Washington that they've had enough. You know, so it's clearly the most pressure, I think, that the Israeli government has felt in months. Let's talk about those signals from Washington then. Is Donald Trump losing patience with Israel?

He has expressed impatience. His envoy, Steve Witkoff, you know, he said that, you know, we would like to release the hostages, but Israel is now prolonging the war.

So there's certainly impatience coming from the administration. I think that Donald Trump's tour in the Middle East, you know, where he met leaders he is quite close to. These are people that he likes and he listens to. More importantly, you know, they're leaders that just showered his country with hundreds of billions of dollars and gave him a lot of good headlines. They had a message that the war has to end.

You know, I was told that he is actually personally moved by pictures and by the reports that he's getting out of Gaza because they are shocking. And he's not immune to that. You know, Donald Trump, you know, as a father and a grandfather, he's not immune to that.

He did leave the region promising to at least get the aid in. You know, we know he's had a tense relationship with Netanyahu in the past, stemming from his first term. And he doesn't like to be made a fool of. And, you know, Netanyahu does have a reputation for running circles around U.S. presidents ever since the times of Bill Clinton. Now, the question is, does he have much of an attention span? You know, that's a whole separate matter for Trump. And Netanyahu, you know, would rather avoid a fight with Trump, but he can also reason that Trump will lose interest.

you know, he may very well lose interest in a few weeks. Samir, what's changed since the end of the ceasefire with Hamas in March, and even, I suppose, over the last few weeks to prompt this ramping up of condemnation from Israel's allies, who previously have been very publicly supportive of Israel's right to fight Hamas? I mean, I think Donald Trump, the governments of Canada,

France, the UK, other governments in the world, including Germany, who've been very supportive of Israel. They are fully and completely aware of the statements coming out of Israeli leaders that, you know, the endgame of this war has shifted well beyond depleting Hamas and releasing the hostages. But it's a matter of destroying an entire territory and giving 2.1 million people no other choice but to leave.

It's a very dark moment, and these statements have been going on for some weeks now. And it could be argued that, well, we are making some concessions here and there, but don't worry, we're destroying Gaza, and they're appeasing their base. You can make that argument, but the thing is, you know,

I think Britain and the U.S. and other governments are, you know, they have their own look at Gaza. They can see what's going on. They have satellite images. You know, they fly surveillance flights and they can see whether, you know, whatever the Israeli government happens to be saying, the facts on the ground are that Gaza is being entirely destroyed.

you have thousands of children at severe risk of malnutrition in the coming months. There's no two ways about it. You know, not allowing any food or water or anything into Gaza over almost a three-month period, well, that's a violation of international law. And, you know, I think they kind of take a look at that and think, well, you know, this is illegal. And how much longer can we go along with that? So I think it's the moment where they want to step in

Say, look, we're your friends. You know, we've supported you all along to Israel. But, you know, you can't just keep doing this. That's not in anyone's interest. What pressure then, Samir, does this put on Netanyahu, this sort of international condemnation, especially if it does start to come from the United States?

I mean, Netanyahu is, you know, he has said that Israel needs to wean itself off U.S. security assistance. And that may be, you know, a goal, but it's certainly not feasible currently. I mean, Israel relied on the U.S. to help it defend its skies from Iranian missiles twice last year. It relied on them even recently on a U.S. air defense system to shoot down a Houthi missile. You know, Israel is beholden to the U.S.

Certainly it's not as beholden to Britain or France or Canada, but the idea, I think, of Israel becoming increasingly isolated, something that, you know, it's invested a lot of effort into, you know, explaining its stance, you know, fighting for its image,

you know, against increasing criticism in recent years. And people are accusing Netanyahu within Israel that you've wasted all this goodwill. You had an opposition leader who warned that Israel is on the road to becoming a pariah like South Africa unless it returns to sanity. If Donald Trump's aim is that he wants Israel to negotiate again with Hamas, what are the levers at his disposal? I mean, would a shift in the US position make Netanyahu change course?

ultimately, the pressure that really counts is American pressure. And it goes back to the question, again, of whether Donald Trump will have the attention span to see it through. I mean, he has many, many levers. You know, he is incredibly mercurial and even some say, you know, there's a capricious president and he will take drastic action. I mean, we've seen that with the tariffs. We've seen that with other things that he's done. So he's certainly not someone that you want to test. That's, I think that would be

Netanyahu's fear right now. And unlike Joe Biden and, you know, unlike I think even previous Republican presidents, you know, with Joe Biden, you can, you know, thumb your nose at him and go to your friends in Congress. You can go to your friends in the opposition party. They will support you. They'll even invite you to give an address in the Congress. With Trump, Netanyahu is not going to be getting support from the Democrats if, you know, he sort of is at

cross ends with Trump. That's not going to be happening. And Trump, within the Republican Party, there are few that are willing to criticize him for taking a tough stance. So he's kind of covered his bases. And he's not as easy to pressure, perhaps, as Joe Biden.

So that's, you know, I think all these factors, his personality, the loss of goodwill that Netanyahu has kind of overseen over the past year with the Democrats and now some of the Republicans, that will be weighing heavily, I think. How likely do you think it is that Israel and Hamas might seriously re-engage with the peace talks? We'll have to wait and see. I mean, so far we've seen no

signs of compromise, either from Israel or from Hamas. You know, Hamas is also sticking to its guns and they're making new demands as well, you know, that Israel has to end the war entirely, withdraw before they release the hostages. And Israel is sticking to a proposal that Hamas, arguably knows that Hamas will reject, hoping that pressure at some point will force Hamas into it, which, you know, and that hasn't worked for the past year and a half.

Doesn't sound that likely then. Samir, thank you. That is The Times' Middle East correspondent, Samir Al-Atrash. As Samir was saying, this potential shifting US policy towards Israel seems to be, at least partly, a consequence of Donald Trump's trip to the Middle East last week.

Now, on Friday, we looked at another consequence, his much more vocal change in policy towards Syria. In that episode, we spoke about why his praise for Syria's new president could have significant implications for Israel. It's called Trump's Syria shift could be a game changer. Do go back and have a listen to that. That's it from us, though. Thank you for taking 10 minutes to stay on top of the world. With the help of The Times, we'll see you tomorrow.

Did you know that foreign investors are quietly funding lawsuits in American courts through a practice called third-party litigation funding? Shadowy overseas funders are paying to sue American companies in our courts, and they don't pay a dime in U.S. taxes if there is an award or settlement. They profit tax-free from our legal system, while U.S. companies are tied up in court and American families pay the price to the tune of $5,000 a year.

Thank you.

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