Poll: 71% of Israelis don’t trust Trump to look out for them in Iran deal; just 11% say Israel won war

Trump says he’ll ‘most likely’ endorse Netanyahu but wants to see who else is running, as survey underscores deep discontent among Israeli public over US-Iran deal and PM’s conduct

A television poll published Thursday found that only a sliver of Israelis feel their country won the Iran war, or trust US President Donald Trump to look out for their interests as he negotiates a deal with the Islamic Republic.

In addition, most feel that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct hurt Israel’s interests in the US-Iran agreement, according to Channel 12 news.

The numbers marked a stark departure from the robust support Israelis have given Trump for years in poll after poll. Now, however, there is deep concern across Israel over the terms of the US-Iran memorandum of understanding signed this week, while a series of recent harsh public criticisms of Israeli officials from both Trump and US Vice President JD Vance point to a rift in the US-Israel relationship.

The Channel 12 poll, asking whether Netanyahu’s conduct benefited or harmed Israeli interests in the US-Iran agreement, finds that 52% say it was harmed, while 24% felt it helped, and 24% didn’t know.

Asked whether they trust Trump to look out for Israeli interests in an agreement with Iran, 71% said they don’t, while just 13% said they do and another 16% don’t know. Those numbers mark a decline for Trump on this question since last week, when the split was 62% to 21%.

And asked about how they think the war ended, 43% say Israel lost, while 41% say it ended inconclusively. Just 11% feel Israel won the war.

The questions were included as part of a survey on who Israelis would vote for if general elections scheduled for October were held today, which showed Zionist opposition parties would win more seats than the Netanyahu-led bloc of right-wing and religious parties but would fall short of the 61-seat majority needed to form a government.

‘Most likely to endorse Bibi’

Further underscoring the current rift between the Trump administration and Israel, the US president said Thursday that he will “most likely” endorse Netanyahu in the fall elections, but wants to see who else is running against him first.

“I’ll have to look at who’s running, but I like Bibi very much. I would be most likely to endorse him,” Trump told the Kan public broadcaster in a phone interview, using Netanyahu’s nickname.

“He’s doing a very good job, he’s got to be a little bit more rational,” Trump continued, apparently referring to Israel’s strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon, which the US claims have been indiscriminate.

The remarks came after an Israeli report earlier this week said Netanyahu’s Likud party shelved a planned election campaign highlighting the premier’s ties with the American leader amid the domestic fallout over the US-Iran deal.

Trump has issued a series of harsh criticisms of Netanyahu in recent days and weeks, calling him “fucking crazy” and saying he has “no fucking judgment,” among other things, but has also praised their relationship, which he’s called “very good” and “unbelievable.”

Making the case for the MOU, Trump insisted to Kan that “the Israeli people should support the deal because we took the nuclear weapon threat away against Israel.” He repeated a sentiment he had expressed earlier in the week, saying, “If it wasn’t for Donald Trump, Israel wouldn’t exist right now. They would have been blown off the planet.”

As for Iran’s stockpiles of highly enriched uranium that the MOU says will be the subject of subsequent talks, Trump dismissed the issue as “very unimportant, frankly.”

“It’s buried under a mountain that nobody can get to except us; it’s very safely buried under a mountain and at the right time we will get it. We’ll take it at the right time.”