For Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, the resumption of fighting with Iran on Sunday may have shown his supporters, at least momentarily, that he still was capable of standing up to President Trump.<\/p>\n
But the halt to the fighting on Monday, after less than 15 hours, left Israel and its embattled leader in a bind and appearing as beholden to Mr. Trump as ever.<\/p>\n
If Mr. Netanyahu had hopes of undermining the peace talks that Mr. Trump has been pursuing with Iran, the president\u2019s pressure on both sides to stop the airstrikes \u2014 and Israel\u2019s abandonment of preparations for another attack on Monday \u2014 showed this had failed.<\/p>\n
The burst of warfare may have also altered how the warring parties weigh and respond to each new set of attacks \u2014 and not in a way that is advantageous for Israel.<\/p>\n
Israel now understands that Iran can have its proxy army in Lebanon, Hezbollah, attack civilians in northern Israel, that Israeli counter-strikes at Hezbollah may prompt Iran to launch missiles at Israel and that Mr. Trump may prevent Israel from hitting back at Iran too hard or for too long.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a major change,\u201d said Raz Zimmt, director of the Iran program at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. He said it showed that Iran\u2019s hard-line government was full of confidence and had concluded that \u201cPresident Trump doesn\u2019t want to go back to war, so they can take some risks to make sure this linkage of developments in Iran and Lebanon is maintained.\u201d<\/p>\n
The latest round of violence erupted days after a new cease-fire was reached in Washington between Israel and Lebanon. Hezbollah rejected the agreement, and Israel threatened to retaliate in Beirut if Hezbollah attacked Israeli territory again.<\/p>\n
When Hezbollah did so, firing rockets at Israel on Sunday, Mr. Netanyahu ordered a strike on the Dahiya, a Hezbollah stronghold on the southern outskirts of Beirut.<\/p>\n
Hours later, Iran responded by firing the first of around 30 missiles at Israel. And on Monday, Iran\u2019s ally in Yemen, the Houthis, fired one missile into Israel and threatened to attack Israeli and Israeli-affiliated ships transiting the Red Sea.<\/p>\n
Danny Citrinowicz, a retired Israeli military intelligence officer who specializes in Iran, said that Iran and Israel were both trying to impose their own \u201cequation\u201d on the battlefield.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsrael is saying that any attack on our cities and border communities will be a reason to attack in the Dahiya,\u201d Mr. Citrinowicz said. \u201cFor Hezbollah, that\u2019s not the case. Hezbollah says, \u2018The Dahiya is for Tel Aviv, and your northern villages are for our southern villages.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
In a recorded video message early Monday evening, Mr. Netanyahu said that the new Iranian and Hezbollah equation was \u201cunbearable, and unacceptable to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI insist on our right to act against our enemies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s airstrikes on Sunday and Monday gave Mr. Netanyahu at least one useful talking point. They showed his restive political base that he was willing to stand up to Mr. Trump, who had scolded Israel for bombing the Dahiya and then argued that Israel should exercise restraint against Iran.<\/p>\n