Israel’s assumption is being put to test

Along the Ayalon highway, in Tel Aviv, two illuminated signs have appeared, portraying Donald Trump against a billowing stars-and-stripes backdrop and bearing the blunt appeal: "Mr President, finish the job!"

Israel's attack on Iran may have been carried out with Trump's approval, as government officials in Israel claim, but it appears to have been unleashed only in the expectation – rather than any certainty – that the US will ultimately be 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, reports The Guardian.

In the Israeli version of events, an agreement in principle dates back to a letter Trump sent to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in March, giving Iran 60 days to accept tight constraints on its nuclear programme. The clock started ticking on 12 April, the date of the first round of US-Iranian negotiations in Oman.

Netanyahu seems to have accepted the same 60-day window to hold off on military action and to give diplomacy a chance. He has said that Operation Rising Lion had originally been planned for April. It was postponed and last Thursday marked day 61 on Trump's calendar. That night about 200 Israeli planes took off on their first sorties. As the deadline approached, the US withdrew non-essential personnel from embassies in the Middle East, but Trump appeared to discourage an Israeli attack, saying it might "blow" the chances for a sixth round of negotiations due on Sunday.

Once the operation had begun, Trump quickly swung his support behind it, noting on his Truth Social platform: "Two months ago I gave Iran a 60-day ultimatum to 'make a deal'. They should have done it! Today is day 61. I told them what to do, but they just couldn't get there. Now they have, perhaps, a second chance!"

As the war has progressed, so has the clamour in Israel for US involvement, along with uncertainty over whether Netanyahu has a plan B if Trump opts to watch from the sidelines.

Yesterday, Israel struck a key Iranian nuclear site and Iranian missiles hit an Israeli hospital, reports Reuters.

"We need to hope that this actually happens, and possibly very soon," the veteran commentator Ben Caspit wrote in Ma'ariv newspaper on Wednesday.

"Take all the credit, Donald. The important thing is that you ultimately decide to join," Caspit said.