Israeli officials are confident that its Western allies would come to its defense in the event of a missile and drone attack from Iran and Hezbollah, as Israel prepares for the threatened response to the assassination of leading Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists last week.

Following a flurry of phone calls with leading U.S. and U.K. officials, Israeli sources told Jewish Insider that cooperation to intercept missiles aimed at Israel, of the kind that took place during the April 14 Iranian attack, was on the table.

Secretary of State Tony Blinken reportedly told his counterparts in the G7 in a Sunday phone call that they are uncertain what kind of attack Iran plans to launch on Israel. He encouraged the officials to continue diplomatic pressure on the Islamic republic and its terrorist proxy Hezbollah to moderate any potential attack to prevent an expanded regional war.

Israeli officials’ certainty of Washington’s backing came despite their admissions to JI of tensions on a Thursday phone call between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Joe Biden.

The day after the call, Biden said that the conversation was “very direct.”

According to Israel’s Channel 12, Biden told Netanyahu “stop bullshitting me.” The president said that, while the U.S. will help defend Israel, the president felt Jerusalem was taking actions, such as the assassinations, that increased regional tensions. Biden also reportedly told Netanyahu, “Don’t take the president for granted,” because he may not be as willing to come to Israel’s defense in the future.

According to the White House readout, Biden “reaffirmed his commitment to Israel’s security against all threats from Iran, including its proxy terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.”

The leaders “discussed efforts to support Israel’s defense against threats, including against ballistic missiles and drones, to include new defensive U.S. military deployments,” the White House stated. “Together with this commitment to Israel’s defense, the President stressed the importance of ongoing efforts to de-escalate broader tensions in the region.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, was also on the call.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant spoke on Friday and Sunday, focusing on similar themes, with the readout from the Pentagon saying that they “discussed U.S. force posture moves that the Department is taking to bolster protection for U.S. forces, support the defense of Israel, and deter and de-escalate broader tensions in the region.” Gallant thanked Austin for their “close military and strategic coordination” and “the current and future deployment of U.S. military capabilities and force posture changes in defense of Israel.” 

A similar dynamic came to the fore with relations between Jerusalem and London. The new, Labour-led government in the U.K. withdrew its objection to the International Criminal Court issuing an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and Gallant last month, something a senior Israeli official said was “very disappointing…a wrong decision in principle [that] goes against justice and truth and violates the right of all democracies to fight terror.” U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy was critical of Israel following a visit and said last week that he sought “new advice on Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law” that could halt arm sales to the Jewish state.

Yet Israeli officials were encouraged by U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey’s visit last week. Gallant’s office released a statement that he and Healey discussed “their shared commitment to maintaining and further strengthening cooperation in a number of strategic and military areas, including the field of intelligence.”

Though the readout of Netanyahu and Biden’s call focused mostly on cooperating to defend Israel, tensions between them flared over stalled hostage release and cease-fire negotiations.

“We have the basis of a cease-fire,” Biden told reporters, adding that Israel “should move on it and they should move on it now.” 

Biden said that the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, for which Israel has not taken responsibility, has “not helped” the talks.

The Prime Minister’s Office said it would not address reports from closed conversations between Netanyahu and Biden, but added: “The prime minister is constant in his desire to free all of the hostages, living and dead. The prime minister does not get involved in American politics and will work with whoever is elected president – just as he expects the Americans not to get involved in Israeli politics.”

Israeli security chiefs, including Mossad head David Barnea, reportedly pleaded with Netanyahu to accept the deal that is currently on the table, but Netanyahu pushed to continue talks, sending them to Cairo on Saturday. Netanyahu’s office denied the report.

An Israeli official told JI that such leaks from cabinet meetings are meant “to pressure the prime minister to make a bad decision, but in essence, what they’re doing is encouraging Hamas to continue to refuse to make a deal. The worst thing is that they’re hurting the families. They should be ashamed of themselves.”

As for the deal itself, the Prime Minister’s Office said that Netanyahu has not added anything since May 27.

Netanyahu said at the opening of Sunday’s cabinet meeting that media reports “create a false impression that Hamas agreed to a deal and the government of Israel opposed it. The opposite is true. To this moment, Hamas did not agree to the most basic conditions of the outline.”

“While we did not add any demands to the outline, Hamas demanded dozens of changes,” Netanyahu said. “It is not retreating from its demand that Israel will not be able to return to the war, it demands us to retreat from the Philadelphi Corridor and Rafah crossing, its oxygen that will allow it to arm itself again. … Hamas is also unwilling to allow any system that will check and prevent the passage of weapons and terrorists into northern Gaza.”

According to Israeli media, one of the sticking points in the negotiations —  that Israel will be able to continue fighting Hamas in Gaza after the first phase of the deal in order to pressure Hamas to continue on to the second phase — is close to being resolved.

The version of the deal that is currently under negotiation goes back to late April, when Israel put forth a proposal that Blinken called “extraordinarily generous.” On May 6, Hamas responded with a drastically different proposal that was widely regarded as a nonstarter, putting a stop to negotiations. Yet, by May 27, Israel responded with an adjusted version of the Hamas proposal – the version that Biden embraced and presented in his May 31 speech. The IDF entered Rafah on May 14, and by May 29, Israel controlled 75% of the Philadelphi Corridor.

Israel seeks to continue to control the corridor but is open to having non-Hamas elements from the region be responsible for preventing weapons from entering Gaza through the Rafah Crossing. This, some have argued, is Netanyahu adding new demands in the negotiations.

An Israeli official argued to JI that “we were not in Rafah on May 6, and it is not relevant to the May 27 proposal that the President [Biden] backed. We didn’t add anything to the proposal the President backed. Hamas has not accepted the proposal that the President presented.” 

Another matter in dispute is the hostages. Hamas has not committed to how many it would release.

Netanyahu said on Sunday: “I stand by the demand to maximize the number of living hostages that will be released already in the first phase of the deal…I am willing to go a very long way to free all of our hostages while preserving Israel’s security.”