Despite clashes with US presidents, Israel's Netanyahu usually gets his way

By Crispian Balmer

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -A little over a month ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to have been shunted to the shadows by U.S. President Donald Trump, who hopscotched the Middle East without visiting Israel, traditionally Washington's closest regional ally.

Worse still, from Netanyahu's perspective, Trump lifted sanctions on neighbouring Syria - something Israel opposed - and talked up the prospects of securing a nuclear deal with Iran, something the prime minister has always cautioned against.

Fast forward five weeks and the United States has bombed Iran's main nuclear installations, fulfilling a decades-old dream of Netanyahu to convince Washington to bring its full military might to thwart Tehran's atomic ambitions.

The U.S. attack underscores a broader truth that has defined Netanyahu's career: no matter how fraught his relationships with successive presidents, he normally ends up getting what he wants.

For over three decades, Netanyahu has clashed - often spectacularly - with American leaders. He has lectured them, defied them, embarrassed them publicly and privately. And yet, across Democratic and Republican administrations, U.S. military aid has flowed largely uninterrupted to Israel. Washington remains Israel's chief arms supplier and diplomatic shield.

"He probably has concluded that he always gets away with it," said a senior United Nations official in Jerusalem who declined to be named. "It's hard to argue otherwise."

Just one month ago, opposition leader Yair Lapid accused Netanyahu of destroying Israel's relations with the United States. This weekend's action represents the closest U.S.-Israeli military alignment yet against a common adversary.

WITHSTANDING PRESSURE

Netanyahu's belief in his ability to advance his agenda, and withstand American pressure when needed, has deep roots.

Barely a month after becoming prime minister for the first time in 1996, he met President Bill Clinton in Washington and immediately rubbed him up the wrong way.

"Who the f--- does he think he is? Who's the f---ing superpower here?" Clinton asked his aides afterwards, according to U.S. diplomat Aaron David Miller, who was present.

But vital U.S. aid to Israel continued to flow - something that would remain a constant over the years.

Netanyahu was voted out of office in a 1999 election and did not return to power until a decade later, by which time Barack Obama, a Democrat like Clinton, was in the White House.

Relations between the two turned openly hostile, initially over Israeli settlement building in occupied territory that Palestinians claim for a future stake - a constant thorn in U.S.-Israeli relations.

Matters deteriorated further as Obama entered negotiations with Iran to curb its nuclear drive - a project that Israel said is aimed at creating atomic bombs and that Tehran has said is for purely civilian purposes.

Netanyahu spoke to Congress in 2015 at the invitation of Republicans to denounce the prospective deal, without informing the White House. "(The accord) doesn't block Iran's path to the bomb; it paves Iran's path to the bomb," he said.

Obama was widely reported to have been furious, but still, the following year Washington delivered the largest military aid package to Israel in U.S. history - $38 billion over 10 years.

Political analysts say Netanyahu takes U.S. support as a given, confident that backing from evangelical Christians and the small Jewish-American community will guarantee that Israel remains well-armed, however much he antagonises the White House.

CONVINCING TRUMP

When Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on Israel in October 2023, then-President Joe Biden flew to Israel to show his support, authorising a huge flow of weapons to help with the conflict unleashed in Gaza.

But relations between Netanyahu, a right-winger, and Biden, a Democrat, deteriorated rapidly, as Washington grew alarmed by the spiralling number of civilian deaths and the burgeoning humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave.

Biden held back on some heavy munitions deliveries and imposed sanctions on a number of violent Israeli settlers, so his defeat at the hands of Trump in last November's presidential election was celebrated by Netanyahu. Finally, he had a Republican in office at a crucial moment for Israel.

However, things did not go smoothly, at least to start with.

Like Biden before him, Trump was unhappy at the protracted conflict in Gaza and then he blindsided Netanyahu during a meeting on April 7, when he revealed that he was launching direct talks with Tehran aimed at finding a diplomatic solution to the protracted nuclear stand-off with Iran.

But while Trump publicly positioned himself as a peacemaker, Netanyahu consistently pushed for military intervention. Although it is unclear if Netanyahu ever got him to say "yes" to Israel's war plans, it was at least not a "no", according to two senior U.S. officials and a senior Israeli source.

As soon as Israel launched its aerial war on Iran in the early hours of June 13, Israel pushed the United States to join in, urging Trump to be on the winning side of history, two Israeli officials said last week.

"Mr President, Finish the job!" read large billboards that have popped up in Tel Aviv.

The sense of relief when the U.S. bombers struck Iran's most protected nuclear sites on Sunday was palpable.

"Congratulations, President Trump. Your bold decision to target Iran's nuclear facilities with the awesome and righteous might of the United States will change history," Netanyahu said in a brief video address.

"May God bless our unshakeable alliance, our unbreakable faith," he concluded.

(Reporting by Crispian Balmer; editing by Mark Heinrich)