Donald Trump insists Israel would have been 'eviscerated' without US support as US secret service expect Netanyahu to scupper peace

By ANDREW JEHRING, CHIEF FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT Published: 23:00, 19 June 2026 | Updated: 23:19, 19 June 2026 Donald Trump has insisted Israel would have been 'eviscerated' without his support. The US President also said he has to try to keep Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu 'a little bit sane' and that he has 'a lot of respect for me'. And he maintained Mr Netanyahu would 'do as I say' as deadly strikes in Lebanon risked derailing his Iran peace plan. But US intelligence agencies last night warned that Mr Netanyahu would try to 'undermine' Mr Trump's peace efforts, the Washington Post reported. Asked if he can control Israel in Lebanon, Mr Trump told the Axios news site: 'Yeah. They have a lot of respect for me – and do as I say.' It came as the IDF and Hezbollah traded blows immediately after agreeing another ceasefire. On Wednesday Tehran had piled pressure on Mr Trump to try to force Mr Netanyahu to pause attacks as it scrapped talks which had been due to take place yesterday, citing the conflict in Lebanon. Under the terms of the memorandum of understanding signed three days ago between the US and Iran, both Israel and Hezbollah were to immediately cease hostilities in Lebanon. Mr Netanyahu, who did not sign the memorandum and was sidelined in talks, vowed Israel will stay in the 'security zone' it has established beyond the border indefinitely. US President Donald Trump speaks after touring the newly designated Air Force One presidential aircraft at Joint Base Andrews on June 19  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a news conference in Jerusalem on 15 June  Hours before the ceasefire started, Israel's national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, said: 'For every tear of an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers must weep. All of Lebanon must burn.' And Mr Netanyahu instructed his forces to hit 150 targets across the country which left at least 47 dead and 97 wounded after the terror group killed four IDF soldiers in overnight drone strikes. The exchange saw Washington and Tehran force Israel and Hezbollah to agree to pause hostilities at 4pm local time yesterday. 'We understand that after the exchange of fire earlier today, Israel and Hezbollah are now in a ceasefire,' a senior US official told Reuters. A Hezbollah source said: 'As soon as we got word of the ceasefire, we applied it from our end.' But almost immediately afterwards a dozen IDF strikes were reported across southern Lebanon while Hezbollah drones set off sirens in northern Israel. Lebanese sources said Israeli air strikes continued for an hour after start of ceasefire, then abated. President Trump later told NBC News he had spoken with Israel and asked it to stop the attacks but declined to specify whether he had talked to Mr Netanyahu directly. The comments below have not been moderated. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.