Defying Trump, Israel strikes Iran to demand role in peace talks

Analysts said that the June 8 strikes were calculated to demonstrate that Israel could disrupt diplomacy if sidelined.

When Israel struck targets in Iran on Monday, June 8, in apparent defiance of US President Donald Trump, it was not simply a military action. It was a signal to Washington that no final agreement with Tehran can be concluded while ignoring Israeli interests, according to a Reuters report.

Israel struck Iran for the first time since the April ceasefire, after Iran fired missiles at Israel in retaliation for Israeli strikes on Beirut. Both sides called a halt to the exchange shortly after Trump publicly told them to stop, but each left open the possibility of resuming hostilities.

Israel’s message: We can overturn the table

Analysts told Reuters that the strikes were calculated to demonstrate that Israel could disrupt diplomacy if sidelined. Trump has been pursuing a negotiated settlement with Iran while keeping Israel out of those talks, publicly pressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to avoid actions that could derail negotiations, including holding back in Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March to pursue the Iran-aligned Hezbollah.

Iran has maintained it will not agree to any deal with Washington unless a ceasefire also holds in Lebanon.

“Because if it tramples too heavily on Israeli interests, Israel can overturn the table,” Danny Orbach, a military historian at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, told Reuters.

The strains between Netanyahu and Trump spilled into the open last week when Trump confirmed he had called the Israeli Prime Minister “f**king crazy” in a heated phone call after Netanyahu launched strikes on Beirut. Trump also said the two still had a good relationship. 

Netanyahu’s domestic critics, meanwhile, accused him of surrendering sovereignty by curbing Israeli military actions to keep US negotiations alive, without being given a seat at the table.

Israel sought to protect its Lebanon operation

After Iran fired at Israel on Monday, Trump made clear he considered the matter closed. “Each of them had their fun. Israel had its strike and Iran had its strike. We don’t need another one,” he told Axios.

Israel, however, concluded it could not accept a situation in which Iranian strikes on Israel were treated as a legitimate response to Israeli operations in Lebanon, a senior Israeli defence official told Reuters. Before deciding to strike Iran, Netanyahu convened a meeting of top security and defence officials to discuss the goals of a short-term escalation, the official and two others familiar with the deliberations told the news agency.

One objective was to establish that any future US-Iran deal would not strip Israel of its right to strike Hezbollah in southern Lebanon or require it to withdraw troops from there. Netanyahu had raised this point with Trump in weekend phone calls, the senior official said.

After Israel and Iran agreed to halt fire, Netanyahu addressed Israelis in a brief televised statement, saying Israel would respond with force if Iran attacked again. “I say this to you as I say it with appreciation and respect in my good conversations with my friend President Trump,” he said.

Israel needs US backing to sustain any long Iran campaign

Despite the defiance, military experts cautioned that Israel’s ability to act alone has clear limits. Although it can strike Iran independently, it would need US support to sustain an extended air campaign beyond a few weeks.

In private, Netanyahu has acknowledged the difficulty of influencing Trump’s thinking on Iran, telling aides he has “no manoeuvre” to steer the president’s decision-making, according to the Reuters report.