Few political issues have been as polarizing as the Israel-Gaza conflict, especially in 2025.
Left or right, Democrat or Republican, average Joe or member of Congress — everyone seems to have their own opinion on the seemingly never-ending conflict.
The deluge of opinions is exhausting enough, but imagine being President Donald Trump and trying to bring an actual end to this bloodshed.
Trump likely felt the most fleeting sense of relief when his administration helped broker a critical peace deal between the two warring sides in October.
(And to be clear, the official stance of the U.S. government is still overwhelmingly pro-Israel and anti-Hamas.)
That tenuous deal came after a separate-but-related ceasefire was almost immediately tested — by both Israel and Iran — after it was signed in late June.
That re-escalation drew the infamous rebuke from Trump, who said that neither Israel nor Iran “know what the f*** they’re doing” after having fought each other for so long.
That same description could probably be applied to the Israel-Gaza conflict — and it apparently drew a similarly serious response from Trump.
According to Axios, Trump’s White House fired off a “stern message” to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after Israel killed a Hamas leader over the weekend.
On Saturday, Israel reportedly killed Raed Saad, apparently without any advance notification to the U.S. or its military leadership.
Saad was the deputy commander of Hamas’ military wing and allegedly helped mastermind the horrific Oct. 7 attacks.
Four people in total were killed in the raid that took out Saad.
As Axios noted, this could be viewed as a violation of the ceasefire that was brokered.
“The angry message from the White House comes amid growing tensions between the Trump administration and the Netanyahu government around the next phase of the agreement to end the war in Gaza and over Israel’s broader regional policy,” Axios reported.
Perhaps more disconcertingly for Netanyahu’s regime, its aggressive attitude appears to be alienating some powerful friends in high places.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House envoy Steve Witkoff, and Trump advisor Jared Kushner (his son-in-law) have become “very frustrated” with Netanyahu of late, according to Axios’ sources.
“The White House message to Netanyahu was: ‘If you want to ruin your reputation and show that you don’t abide by agreements be our guest, but we won’t allow you to ruin President Trump’s reputation after he brokered the deal in Gaza,’” a senior U.S. official said.
Interestingly, these harsh tidings come just weeks before a Dec. 29 Mar-a-Lago meeting between Trump and Netanyahu.
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