Report: Israel Had 'Green Light' From Trump

Hours before Israel unleashed its massive attack on Iran, President Trump declared, "I don't want them going in because, I mean, that would blow it," he said, referring to negotiations on Iran's nuclear program. Thus, CNN notes, the Israeli bombardment defied Trump's "publicly stated wishes." But the word "publicly" might be the key one in that sentence, a report at Axios suggests. It quotes one unnamed Israeli official as saying, "We had a clear US green light."

The story says two Israeli officials told reporters that the Trump administration made a show of publicly discouraging an Israeli strike in order to keep Iran off guard. No American officials have confirmed that, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio made a point to quickly disavow any US involvement in the Israeli military action once it began. The Axios report seems to mesh with comments made by the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, ahead of the Israeli attack. Huckabee said this week that he doubted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would act without the blessing of the US, per the Times of Israel. (More Iran stories.)