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By Shane Croucher
Senior Editor
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U.S. President Donald Trump said he stopped Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from fighting in Gaza, a war he said would have continued "for years" without his pressure on Netanyahu.
“He would have just kept going,” Trump told TIME in a newly published interview. “It could have gone on for years. It would have gone on for years. But I stopped him, and everybody came together when I stopped him.”
Newsweek has contacted Netanyahu's office for comment.
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Trump and Netanyahu have heaped praise on each other publicly. But Trump has also shown signs of frustration with Netanyahu's hardline approach, saying in his recent speech to the Knesset that the Israeli leader "is not the easiest guy to deal with."
In the interview, Trump said he pushed Netanyahu to accept his peace plan: “Bibi, you can’t fight the world,” Trump said he told the prime minister. “You can fight individual battles, but the world’s against you.”
He also described Israel's strike on Hamas negotiators in Doha, Qatar, as "terrible" and “a tactical mistake” by Netanyahu. But Trump said the outrage over the attack was "one of the things that brought us all together" to ultimately deliver the ceasefire.
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Trump, Vance Make West Bank Position Clear
The Trump White House's willingness to engage with all parties diplomatically—and to exert pressure on its close ally, Israel—is what helped to deliver the ceasefire in Gaza under the U.S. leader's 20-point peace plan.
That readiness to apply pressure is clear on the issue of the Palestinian-governed West Bank.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance left Israel on Thursday after a two-day visit to shore up the fragile Trump peace plan amid mutual accusations of ceasefire violations by Hamas and Israel. While Vance was there, far-right Israeli lawmakers put forward a bill for Israel to annex the West Bank. He called it a "very stupid political stunt" and an "insult."
"The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel," Vance said.
The point was emphasized by Trump.
“It won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries,” Trump told TIME on the issue of Israel annexing the West Bank. “Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened.”
While much of Netanyahu’s coalition, including members of his Likud Party, support annexation, they have backed off their calls since Trump first said he opposes such a move.
The United Arab Emirates, a key U.S. and Israeli ally in the push to peace in Gaza, has said annexation would be a “red line.”
Netanyahu: Israel Not a U.S. Protectorate
Netanyahu, meeting with Vance, rejected suggestions that Israel is a "protectorate" of the U.S. and said his country makes its own decisions on security.
"I want to put it very clearly. You know, one week they say that Israel controls the United States. A week later they say the United States controls Israel," Netanyahu told reporters.
"This is hogwash. We have a partnership, an alliance of partners who share common values and common goals. We can have discussions. We can have disagreements here and there, but on the whole I have to say that in the past year we've had agreement—agreement not only on goals, but how to reach them."
This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.
Update 10/23/25, 11 a.m. ET: This article was updated with more information.
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