Eli Lake, Columnist

Talks Reassure Israel That U.S. Wants Iran Out of Syria

Trump's policy has focused on eliminating Islamic State. But Netanyahu had a bigger concern.

August 23, 2017 at 11:00 AM UTC

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

Netanyahu wondered whether Trump would continue Obama's approach in Syria.
Photographer: Kobi Gideon/GPO via Getty Images

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Last month Israel's prime minister issued a rare dissent from President Donald Trump's foreign policy. After Secretary of State Rex Tillerson helped broker a test ceasefire in southern Syria, a territory that borders the Jewish state, Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel opposed the plan.

Trump's Syria policy has focused on eliminating the Islamic State. But for Israel, the greatest threat was from Iran, whose allies and forces showed no signs of leaving. Tillerson's ceasefire made no mention of the need for Iran and its proxies to get out of Syria. Israel understandably wondered: Was that arrangement a sign of Trump's broader Middle East policy?