Israel's north seethes as Lebanon front tests Trump's Iran deal

Mayor David Azoulay’s office in Metula — Israel’s northernmost town — features a portrait of U.S. President Donald Trump and an American flag. It’s not an act of praise, but ironic protest.

“Over the past four months, Israel’s policy has been driven entirely by Trump,” said Azoulay, from his office on the Lebanese border, which has become the central sticking point in U.S.-Iranian negotiations to end the war. “Prime Minister Netanyahu is trapped in a bear hug that is slowly suffocating us Israelis. Case in point: the memorandum of understanding with Iran.”

That’s especially true in northern Israel, which is at the heart of the fight between Israel and Hezbollah that even on Friday derailed the first round of peace talks between the U.S. and Iran in Switzerland. It’s also become a source of tension in Netanyahu’s relationship with Trump, who has spent the week publicly slamming the Israeli premier and what he called Israel’s “vicious” approach to Lebanon.

The Galilee Panhandle — a strategic finger of land wedged between the Lebanese and Syrian borders — used to house 50,000 Israeli Jews before three years of Hezbollah rocket attacks left its communities hollowed out. While not entirely deserted, many residents have yet to return, and the streets sit empty amid widespread business closures.

In Metula, which was evacuated in October 2023 on fear that Hezbollah would attempt a deadly cross-border infiltration similar to the Hamas assault from Gaza, only two-thirds of the residents have returned. Those who did harbor little faith that real change is feasible.

“There won't be a ceasefire; it will just keep going like this, with intermittent rocket fire trickling down on us,” said Kobi Sarmili, a 63-year-old chicken farmer from Margaliot, a town near the border. “If they pull the troops out, then what? It will be a living hell. Trump is the one calling the shots for us, no one else. He is running our country.”

Miry Menashe, a 41-year-old coffee shop owner who moved to Metula four years ago, reflected the general unease with the MOU, which Trump signed on Wednesday and sets off a 60-day window for peace talks. While the document calls for an immediate ceasefire on all fronts, including Lebanon, residents can still see and hear fighting across the border.

She echoed the Israeli government line that the Israeli war against Hezbollah is separate from the Iran war.

“If the U.S. wants to be part of the solution rather than enforcing a ceasefire on us, it must compel Lebanon to deploy its army to southern Lebanon. Train them, arm them, and give them the resources they need,” said Menashe. “Mr. Trump, if you want to be a friend, be a friend; if you want to be a foe, be a foe. Don’t be both.”

The shift in Trump’s popularity among Israelis is closely entwined with Netanyahu’s domestic standing.

Last October, when Trump orchestrated a Gaza ceasefire and pressured Netanyahu to end a two-year war in exchange for the release of nearly two dozen living Israeli hostages, two-thirds of Israelis believed the US leader prioritized Israel’s security needs. That sentiment has now reversed; 71% of Israelis believe the US president could abandon Israel’s interests in a future Iran deal.

Netanyahu’s Likud party and his ruling coalition — the most nationalist and religious in the country’s history — have been slipping in the polls since reclaiming power in 2022, and any momentum they regained has eroded recently. For two weeks, opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot has outpaced Netanyahu in opinion polls of who is better suited to lead the country.

On Thursday, in an unprecedented rebuke, U.S. Vice President JD Vance hit back at Israeli politicians who’ve criticized the interim deal, making veiled reference to how far Israel’s international reputation has fallen since its war in Gaza.

“Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time,” Vance said at the White House. “If I was in the Cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world.”

Vance suggested Israel needs to address its security needs via diplomacy as well as military operations, saying “you can’t just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem,” echoing some of Israel’s harshest critics.

The next day, after the clashes at the border worsened overnight, Israeli far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir was blunt about what he hopes is his government’s approach: “For every tear of an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers must weep. All of Lebanon must burn!” he wrote on X.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Kiryat Shmona, the largest city in the Galilee Panhandle, became a prominent symbol of Israel’s ongoing struggle against cross-border terrorism, weathering attacks by Palestinian militant groups from Lebanese territory. The threat later transitioned into decades of conflict with Hezbollah.

Eliav Raichbach, the owner of a car shop born and bred in Kiryat Shmona, chose to stay even after his garage took a direct rocket hit in October 2024.

“I’ve lived through every war here,” he said, “but today’s situation is the worst. I estimate that 40% of Kiryat Shmona’s businesses have not reopened and half the residents who evacuated at the start of the war haven’t returned.”

Polling data indicates that the backlash against government policies is striking at Likud’s core electoral base. This marks a severe shift for places like Kiryat Shmona — a staunch Likud stronghold where the party won nearly 50% of the vote in the last election — and a significant portion of Metula, which backed the ruling coalition.

Miry and Raichbach are both former Netanyahu supporters who stopped backing him after his indictment in a graft trial six years ago.

“There is no such thing as an irreplaceable man — even Bibi has a replacement,” says Raichbach. “He was once good for Israel, but that’s no longer the case.”