President Donald Trump initially appeared to discourage attacks but Israeli officials claim they always had his support
Israel’s attack on Iran was carried out with Donald Trump’s approval, government officials in Israel claim, and it appears to have been unleashed in the expectation – but not certainty – that the US would ultimately get drawn into the war.
That assumption is now being put to the test as the US president weighs a decision on whether to join an assault he has increasingly embraced in his public pronouncements.
Israeli officials have said it would have been unthinkable for prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to have ordered the attack in the early hours of Friday morning against Trump’s wishes, and that there was little ambiguity about the US leader’s preferences.
“This president makes it pretty clear what he wants,” one of the officials said during a visit to a bomb site near Tel Aviv this week.
