Netanyahu dismisses suggestion US and Israel are out of syncpublished at 19:48 GMT
Bernd Debusmann Jr
White House reporter
Prime Minister Netanyahu was seeking to pour cold water on any suggestion that Israel had influence over Donald Trump’s decision to launch Operation Epic Fury in Iran.
In the US, there has been considerable domestic debate over the reasons why the US entered this war, and the role Israel played.
That debate reached a fever pitch earlier this week with the resignation of Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center.
In his resignation letter, Kent – a longtime Trump ally and veteran of the US special operations community – said that “it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby”.
He expanded on those views in a subsequent, two-hour long interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, saying that “Israel drove the decision” and that Israeli officials were circumventing normal channels to influence US lawmakers to push for war.
And just yesterday, Trump took to social media to deny previous reporting that the US had prior knowledge of an Israeli attack on Iran’s South Pars field – a message which some interpreted as frustration by the US president.
With his remarks, Netanyahu is clearly trying to address, albeit indirectly, any suggestion that US and Israeli war aims are out of sync.
