Already a subscriber? Make sure to log into your account before viewing this content. You can access your account by hitting the “login” button on the top right corner. Still unable to see the content after signing in? Make sure your card on file is up-to-date.

President Trump has warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he could end up fighting Iran alone if Israel reignites the war.

Getting into it: During an interview with Axios, Trump said he told Netanyahu “you better be careful, or you will be on your own very soon.” The warning landed as Israel and Iran agreed to pause after the sharpest round of fire since April’s ceasefire, with Trump separately demanding on Truth Social that both sides “immediately stop ‘shooting.'” The flare-up had begun with Israel’s Sunday bombing of Beirut, which drew an Iranian missile barrage at northern Israel, escalating into Israeli strikes on Iran and Iranian retaliation against Israeli targets, all without reported deaths on either side.

The most dramatic moment came behind closed doors, where Netanyahu reportedly approved a “massive” strike on Iran late Monday afternoon before Trump pressed him to call it off, leaving Israeli aircraft ready for takeoff and “considerable confusion” in the military. Whether Israel actually defied Trump remains murky, since the US president told the BBC that “if I tell him to do something, he does it.”

Netanyahu, for his part, struck a defiant tone, insisting Israel has “a full right to self-defense” and vowing to respond “with full force” if attacked again, in what observers read as a message that Israel alone decides when to use military force.

The episode exposed the leaders’ diverging political needs, with one US official telling a news outlet that Netanyahu needed the war to drag on to keep himself afloat at home, and Trump needing it wrapped up to protect his own ass back in the US, a dynamic sharpened by the fact that Netanyahu faces reelection within months.

The split also played out inside Israel’s own cabinet, where far-right ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich reportedly urged resisting US pressure and hammering Hezbollah in Beirut.

This all comes as diplomacy grinds on through Pakistani mediation, though major hurdles remain over Iran’s nuclear commitments, its uranium stockpile, the frozen assets Trump has refused to release upfront, and control of the Strait of Hormuz.