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Many GOP lawmakers don’t like the tense dynamic between President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the Iran war, particularly the rift between them that reopened over the weekend. Trump publicly told Netanyahu not to retaliate against Iran only to watch Netanyahu briefly forge ahead anyway.
The Republican Congress — filled with Netanyahu fans and hawks eager to align with Israel — winced. Some lawmakers openly prodded Netanyahu on Monday to move closer to the US by seeking to bolster negotiations on winding down the war.
Trump “wants to do the right thing for the United States of America. It’s always America First. And so I appreciate that he takes that perspective to the negotiating table. I would like to see Netanyahu come together a little bit more with President Trump,” said Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, a hawkish Republican.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., a close Trump ally, likened the leaders to “two brothers fighting all the time” but said that Netanyahu “needs us; you know they do. They’ve always needed us.”
Republicans are in an awkward spot as Trump tries to extract a deal from Iran that he and his party can sell as a victory. Israel and the United States have moved in alignment for months, but that tight relationship frayed recently, from Trump’s expletive-riddled call with Netanyahu earlier this month to Israel striking Iran despite Trump’s wishes on Sunday.
The two nations tried to smooth over those public disagreements on Monday, but a party that reveled in Democrats’ divisions on Israel now must endure Trump and Netanyahu in a stressful, often public push-pull. After Trump said “I call the shots,” Netanyahu pushed back by asserting “every right to self defense.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said on Monday that “hopefully there’ll be coordination … generally, my experience is that that’s talked through and worked out in advance of that sort of [military] action. So, I hope that will be the pattern and the business model going forward.”
“We need to be looking out for our national interests first and foremost, and I do believe that our interests and Israel’s are largely overlapping,” said Rep. Kevin Kiley, I-Calif., “Coordination has been vital. There might be … differences of opinion from time to time.”
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