Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has for over three decades portrayed Iran as a threat not only to Israel but to the wider world, is expected to press for renewed military action against Tehran when he visits United States President Donald Trump at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, even after Washington carried out strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June.
While Trump has claimed that those attacks effectively dismantled Iran’s nuclear programme and allowed him to portray himself as a peacemaker who brought stability to the Middle East, Israeli officials and their allies are now shifting attention to Iran’s missile capabilities, arguing that they represent an urgent and growing danger, according to an Al Jazeera report.
Analysts, however, said that another confrontation with Iran would run counter to Trump’s stated foreign policy priorities, as his administration seeks to reduce America’s military footprint in the Middle East while promoting economic cooperation and diplomatic normalisation between Israel and Arab states.
Observers noted that Israel has long framed Iran’s nuclear programme as the principal security threat, but Trump’s insistence that the programme has been neutralised has forced Netanyahu’s government to recalibrate its messaging in order to avoid openly contradicting the US president.
As a result, the focus has moved to Iran’s missile arsenal, with pro-Israel lobbying groups and senior US lawmakers warning that Tehran retains significant stockpiles and production capacity despite Israeli military operations earlier this year.
Critics argued that this narrative reflects a broader Israeli strategy aimed not merely at countering immediate threats but at maintaining military dominance in the region, with periodic strikes designed to keep Iran strategically weakened and politically constrained.
They also pointed out that Iran maintains its nuclear programme is peaceful and that it has not launched missiles at Israel without provocation, noting that during the June conflict, it was Israel that initiated hostilities, even though Iranian missiles later breached Israel’s air defences.
Trump’s administration has meanwhile released a National Security Strategy that characterises the Middle East as a region moving towards partnership and investment rather than conflict, and suggests that it is no longer a central priority for US strategic engagement.
Despite this stated shift, analysts warned that Israel may seek to draw Washington into renewed fighting by acting unilaterally against Iran while relying on US military assets in the region for defensive support, thereby escalating tensions incrementally.
Domestic political pressures in the United States further complicate the picture, as Trump faces a divided Republican base in which influential America First figures oppose foreign military interventions, while pro-Israel donors and congressional allies continue to advocate a hardline stance against Iran.
With midterm elections approaching in 2026 and Trump’s popularity under strain due to economic pressures and internal party divisions, analysts said his capacity to support a prolonged conflict may be more limited than it was earlier in the year.