US President Donald Trump reportedly told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he is “fucking crazy” and that “everybody hates Israel”, after Iran suspended peace talks over Tel Aviv’s plans to renew an assault on the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
American officials cited by Axios described the call as “expletive-laden,” saying Trump had “steamrolled” Netanyahu, warning him that further attacks on Lebanon would isolate Israel internationally.
Summarising Trump’s comments, the official said: “I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.”
A second source said that at one point during the call, Trump yelled: “What the fuck are you doing?”
Two officials reported that the US president accused Netanyahu of “ingratitude” for keeping him out of prison – an apparent reference to the Israeli leader’s ongoing corruption trial and Trump’s public calls for Netanyahu to be pardoned.
The call came shortly after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said its negotiating team had “suspended talks and message exchange through mediators” over Netanyahu’s announcement of further attacks on Dahieh, Beirut’s southern suburb.
Initially, Trump said of Iran’s suspension of the talks: “I don’t care if they’re over, honestly…I really don’t care. I couldn’t care less.”
Following the call, Trump announced on social media that: “There will be no Troops going to Beirut, and any Troops that are on their way, have already been turned back.”
He added that he had a “very good call with Hezbollah” about the implementation of a ceasefire.
“They agreed that all shooting will stop – That Israel will not attack them, and they will not attack Israel.”
Hezbollah member of parliament Hassan Fadlallah said in a statement on Monday that the group supports a “full ceasefire” throughout all of Lebanon, adding it would be a precursor to an Israeli troop withdrawal from all Lebanese territory.
Trump told NBC that he has not heard directly from Iran since the suspension of talks.
“I think we’ve been talking too much if you want to know the truth. I think going silent would be very good, and that could be for a long time.
“It doesn’t mean we’re going to go and start dropping bombs all over there. We’ll just go silent. We’ll keep the blockade. Blockade is a piece of steel.”
He later wrote on social media that talks with Iran are continuing “at a rapid pace”.
The tragic reality here is that the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been very mad that President Trump did not launch massive war including ground troops to wipe out Iran which was Bibi’s dream when he invaded Iran and dragged Trump to jump into the war.
What is emerging is that Mossad, the Israeli Spy squad which actually frequently assassinates Iranian leaders right in Tehran working with Netanyahu sold a rotten egg plan to Trump with the scenario of Iran being smashed by the mighty USA military within days or weeks.
Trump walked into the Netanyahu fake plan without putting down his own operation details and then it took Trump a few weeks to realize that Netanyahu gave him an impossible job because nobody can walk over Iran, a country of 93 million people and a very complicated military system.
In his anger Netanyahu then decided he was going to do in Lebanon what he has been doing in Gaza for more than two years now and make Lebanon look like what we see there now.
Here are Palestinians living in Gaza holding their EID prayers in ruins last week following ongoing Israeli genocide and now Bibi wants Lebanon and especially Beirut to be in the same shape after Israeli bombs are done with them.
Netanyahu wants total war in the Middle East to go on with him killing everybody he can manage to take out in three fronts, Gaza, Iran and Lebanon. Already in Gaza the Israeli genocide wiped out more than 100,000 people half of whom could be children.
Bibi’s genocide in Gaza is now before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the Israeli leaders also have Arrest Warrants from the International Criminal Court (ICC)
Here is the city of Beirut that Netanyahu wanted to destroy so he can show his voters that he is great in war even after Trump pushed him out of Iran.
It seems clear that Netanyahu wants to turn Lebanon into the new Gaza and was about to launch heavy strikes in the suburban areas of Beirut and just murder people because Hezbollah is not living in those areas.
It was Bibi’s plan to launch major strikes in Beirut that prompted Donald Trump to stop him and tell him off because Trump now knows that Netanyahu is trying desperately to sabotage the peace effort between Trump and the Iranian leadership.
Netanyahu is not fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon but destroying infrastructure and hospitals and school same as they did in Gaza.
First responders gather at the site of an Israeli strike that hit near a hospital in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on 1 June 2026
Trump was concerned by the fact that many Lebanese civilians have been killed in Israeli strikes and objected to Israel knocking down buildings to take down a single Hezbollah commander, a US official said.
Later in the day, Trump said there would be no troops going to Beirut and those already on the way have been turned back following the call.
In another Truth Social Post, he said: “Talks are continuing, at a rapid pace, with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Netanyahu released a statement after the call saying he “told [Trump] that if Hezbollah does not cease attacking our cities and citizens – Israel will attack terror targets in Beirut”.
“This stance of ours remains unchanged,” he said.
“In parallel, the IDF will continue to operate as planned in southern Lebanon,” he added, referring to the Israel Defence Forces.
Trump’s reported tirade comes after Israel expanded its ground operations in southern Lebanon.
This is what another Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for who Netanyahu is a photocopy did in his massacres in Beirut in 1982
This was the biggest Israeli terrorist attack on Lebanon at that time and Ariel Sharon was trying to kill Palestinan refugees in Lebanon and kill PLO leader Yasser Arafat whom he thought was there.
Before Ariel Sharon was dead after being in a coma for eight years from 2006 -2014, Yasser Arafat, who he was trying to kill had already been in Ramallah setting up the Palestinian state. The irony of history sometimes repeats itself with no shame at all.
Why the seizing of Lebanon’s Beaufort Castle handed Iran leverage in peace talks
Seizing a Crusader-era fortress may not save Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu
Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon, roughly 15 kilometres from Israel’s border, has flipped and flopped between conquerors for much of its almost 1,000-year history and over the weekend, it flipped once again.
Built by European Christians during the Crusades, at some point, Sunni Muslims, Lebanese emirs and Ottoman Turks have all claimed ownership of its ancient stone walls — with the latest occupant, Israel, hoisting the blue and white Star of David over the crumbling ruins for the second time in 44 years.
The country’s Defence Minister Israel Katz proclaimed “whoever threatens the citizens of Israel will lose their strategic assets one after another” in a reference to the castle’s historically important location.
An Israeli flag and a Golani Brigade flag fly at the Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon, as seen from Israel on May 31.
Evocative symbol
Beaufort is an evocative symbol for both sides in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict.
For many Lebanese, seeing the Israel flag flying from high atop the hill recalled Israel’s 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon and represented subjugation. When Israeli troops pulled out in 2000, their departure represented victory over an oppressor.
For Israelis, the castle represents tenacious bravery after IDF soldiers fought a bloody battle with Palestinian militants to first seize the site in 1982. To some Israelis, hoisting the flag there once again, represents a renewed victory.
But underneath those narratives lies a more complicated contemporary reality.
France demanded an emergency security council meeting as it condemned the castle’s capture, saying Israel’s current occupation of southern Lebanon cannot be justified under international law.
For many in Israel, ending the war with Iran and the military campaign against its chief proxy Hezbollah — as U.S. President Donald Trump is pushing to do — will be considered a major political defeat that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be doing his utmost to avoid.
“After 2024, Netanyahu promised Israel that Hezbollah is finished. Well, it is not,” said Ahron Bregman, a former IDF officer and veteran of the 1982 Israel-Lebanon War, who now teaches at King’s College London.
“Using rockets and drones, Hezbollah has turned the lives of Israelis in the north to hell, and inflicted casualties on the IDF. So, Netanyahu wants to show he’s doing something about it.
“But seizing the Beaufort [Castle] won’t stop Hezbollah.”
Indeed, Beaufort’s capture appeared to underscore the challenges faced by the IDF during its military campaign.
U.S. website Axios reported that not only did Hezbollah militants not defend the castle’s walls this time, but Israel also didn’t find any weapons or ammunition inside.
Instead, just hours after its seizure, in the early hours of Sunday morning, Hezbollah drones located a group of Israeli soldiers on or near the site and crashed into their positions, killing one soldier and wounding three others.
“It’s all about domestic politics,” said Bregman of the recent Israeli escalation. “Netanyahu failed to topple Hamas, failed to destroy Hezbollah, failed to destroy the Iranian regime — failure after failure when general elections are just around the corner.”
Netanyahu could face a national election in Israel as early as September and pollsters believe he would be hard pressed to form a governing coalition that would let him stay in power.
“So he ordered to seize the ‘old stones’ [Beaufort], and he sells it as a great achievement.”
More mass displacement
Before his call with Trump, Netanyahu posted on social media that residents of southern Beirut’s Dahieh area should leave quickly ahead of Israeli strikes.
His post sent tens of thousands of residents fleeing to other parts of the country, fearing a repeat of rapid-fire Israeli rocket attacks in mid-April that killed more than 350 people in less than 10 minutes.
Traffic on a road as people flee the southern suburbs of Beirut, after Netanyahu ordered the military to attack targets in the suburbs June 1, 2026
English teacher Sumaya Hadad, 56, told CBC News that within minutes of the new Israeli warning, she had her car packed and was heading out of the city, along with her elderly mother.
“My mother panicked; she is an old lady and she can barely move because of the fear,” said Hadad. “When I’m talking to you, I feel like I want to cry.”
She said the new evacuation orders and mass displacement will further hurt Lebanese civilians but she doubts it will change the trajectory of the war.
“They [Israel’s government] always lie to their people and they want to show them they are achieving something in Lebanon. But I don’t think we as Lebanese should be affected by this.”
Hadad says she believes this phase of the war will end with Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon — and Beaufort Castle — just as the IDF did in 2000 after suffering heavy casualties from years of guerilla warfare from militants, including Hezbollah.
“They [the Israelis] are going to leave again — sooner or later.”
Adongo Ogony is a Human Rights Activist and a Writer who lives in Toronto, Canada
