Trump shares video critical of Netanyahu, with claims he has forced the US into ‘endless wars’

US President-elect Donald Trump shared a video to his Truth Social platform which showcased American professor Jeffrey Sachs criticising and insulting Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In the video, Sachs calls Netanyahu a "deep, dark son of a bitch", and says he is "obsessive" for dragging the US into endless wars.

The speech Sachs was making was about the pretext of the US invasion of Iraq, and how the US was at the time trying to sell and justify the war to Americans.

He blames Netanyahu, saying "that war came from Netanyahu, actually" and adds that from 1995 onwards, Netanyahu had a "theory that the only way we are going to get rid of Hamas and Hezbollah is by toppling the governments that support them. That’s Iraq, Syria and Iran".

He states that until today, Netanyahu is "trying to get us to fight Iran" before going on to swear at him.

The comments come amidst Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza, where over 46,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 109,000 others wounded since 7 October 2023. The war on the Strip has plunged it into a deep humanitarian crisis and decimated its infrastructure.

Netanyahu, who has an arrest warrant against him for the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity, has also been criticised by people in Israel who accuse him of continuing the war in an effort to save his political career.

Several times, over the last 14 months, Israel raised serious fears of a regional conflict through bombing Lebanon and Syria and direct confrontations with Iran and Yemen.

Last year, Israel bombed an Iranian consulate complex in Syria killing Iranian officials, and killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran further inflaming tensions.

Sachs, a lecturer at Columbia University, further says that Netanyahu "has gotten his way" with wars.

In other comments made in the video, he claims that former President Barack Obama instructed the CIA to overthrow the Syrian government and says the war on Iraq was "totally phony", citing how alleged "weapons of mass destruction" were used by former President George W. Bush to justify the war.

Last November, Sachs told Turkish media that Trump could also benefit from Turkey’s "excellence in diplomacy" when dealing with the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.

Trump’s re-posting of the video comes as Israel and Hamas are still trying to agree on a ceasefire and captive deal following his threats that "all hell will break loose" if this does not happen before his inauguration on 20 January.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated that a Gaza ceasefire deal is close to coming to fruition. However, it may be passed on to the incoming Trump administration if it is not completed in the next two weeks.

Meanwhile, Hamas has repeatedly accused Israel of sabotaging a deal from being agreed by changing the terms in an attempt to prolong the war and destruction in Gaza.