NEED TO KNOW
- Israel Hayom, owned by Trump megadonor Miriam Adelson, ran a column attacking the deal
- The writer called the Iran agreement a "surrender" and said Trump "failed"
- Vance had already warned Israeli officials to stop attacking Trump
JERUSALEM (TDR) — A writer in Israel Hayom, the Israeli daily owned by Trump megadonor Miriam Adelson, told President Donald Trump he "betrayed" Israel by signing the US-Iran deal — a rebuke from the heart of his own pro-Israel base.
The big picture: The attack did not come from Trump's antiwar critics on the right. It came from the wing that wanted him to finish the war, and that makes it harder to dismiss.
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- Columnist Danny Zaken wrote that Trump "failed by signing a surrender agreement with a murderous and cruel terror regime"
- Israel Hayom is Israel's most widely distributed newspaper and has long been a reliable promoter of both Trump and Netanyahu
Why it matters: Trump's coalition is being squeezed from two directions at once over the same agreement.
- His isolationist flank, led by figures like Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon, wanted the US out of the Iran fight entirely
- His pro-Israel, hawkish flank wanted regime change — and reads the deal as a betrayal
Driving the news: The column was personal and historical, not a policy brief. Zaken framed it as a letter written "near Jerusalem."
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- He said Trump "may be remembered forever as the president who brought about America's humiliation"
- He hit back at Trump's claim there would be "no Israel" without him, calling it "megalomaniacal," in a paper long described as a pro-Netanyahu "mouthpiece"
What they're saying: The split between Trump's administration and his pro-Israel allies is now openly traded in public.
- Danny Zaken, Israel Hayom — "You lost your patience and your moral and leadership compass."
- JD Vance, Vice President — "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."
Yes, but: The column is a single writer's opinion, not an editorial-board verdict or a statement from Adelson. Reading it as the paper "turning on Trump" overstates what ran.
- Adelson has no public role in the piece, which appeared in the magazine section under one byline
- The paper and Trump have clashed before, including in 2024 when he lumped it in with "fake news"
Between the lines: The signal here is not that one writer is angry. It is that a publication built to amplify the pro-Netanyahu, pro-Trump worldview now has room on its pages for the argument that Trump sold Israel out. A paper nicknamed the "Bibiton" for its loyalty does not run "you failed" by accident. The deal has reached the point where Trump's most dependable foreign constituency is testing how far it can push back — and discovering the administration will push back harder, by name.
What's next:
- A 60-day window to reach a final US-Iran agreement is underway, keeping the rupture live
- Watch whether other pro-Israel US outlets and donors echo the "surrender" framing or hold their fire, given the paper's documented influence on right-wing opinion
- Adelson's own posture, public or private, is the variable that would turn a column into a coalition problem
When the same deal is called "peace" by the White House and "surrender" by close allies, which label should voters trust to describe what actually happened?
Sources
This report was compiled using reporting from Israel Hayom, Newsweek, Mediaite, Middle East Eye, CNN, The Times of Israel, +972 Magazine, Jewlicious, and Wikipedia
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