UNITED STATES PERSPECTIVE

Washington, June 19, 2026. In American newsrooms, Israel's rupture with the European Union fits into a much larger picture: that of a state losing its backing on all fronts simultaneously. According to the New York Times, Israel has absorbed with disbelief the terms of the preliminary Trump-Iran agreement, a text that Israeli analysts describe as a 'catastrophic capitulation' — because it achieves none of the declared war objectives cited by Tel Aviv. The deal dismantles neither Iran's ballistic arsenal nor Tehran-backed militias; it instead requires American forces to withdraw from 'proximity' to Iran within 30 days, enabling Tehran to claim it has expelled the US military from the region.

The relationship with Washington itself is fracturing rapidly. NBC News reveals that Israel was neither invited to participate in negotiations leading to the memorandum of understanding nor received the text before its signature — an exclusion that Netanyahu himself will have to explain to an electorate voting before the end of October. Since the G7 summit, Trump has called the Israeli Prime Minister 'crazy' and openly criticized Israeli strikes on Lebanon: 'Too many people were killed. You don't have to raze a building every time you're looking for someone.' Vice President Vance drove the point home on Thursday, delivering to Jerusalem a warning of unusual frankness: 'Donald J. Trump is the only world leader right now who is sympathetic to Israel. If I were in the Israeli cabinet, I wouldn't attack the only remaining powerful ally I have.'

The Atlantic judges that this rupture represents the collapse of Netanyahu's central strategy: for years, the Prime Minister had made his privileged relationship with Trump his main electoral argument, even displaying giant banners showing them together in 2019. Now, that alliance is turning against him. The magazine notes that Trump forced Israel to cancel imminent retaliatory strikes against Iran and refused Jerusalem consultation on the MOU 'until it was already a done deal'.

On the humanitarian front, NPR reports that over 1,005 Palestinians have been killed since the October ceasefire, according to Gaza's Ministry of Health, and the total death toll of the conflict exceeds 73,000. Israeli Ambassador to Washington Yechiel Leiter told NPR that Israel 'will not withdraw from southern Lebanon' despite pressure, entering into direct contradiction with Iran's interpretation of the agreement. Against this backdrop of multiple fractures, the EU rupture appears to American press as a further symptom of an Israel choosing broad diplomatic confrontation rather than tactical withdrawal.