It’s no secret that the governments of the United States and Israel have frosty relations over Israel’s war in Gaza. But on June 18, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brought this spat before the public eye: He released a video openly accusing the U.S. of withholding military aid.

Netanyahu seemed visibly agitated in the English-language video, which was clearly intended for an American audience (emphasis added):

When [U.S. Secretary of State Antony] Blinken was recently here in Israel, we had a candid conversation. I said I deeply appreciated the support the U.S. has given Israel from the beginning of the war. But I also said something else. I said it’s inconceivable that in the past few months, the administration has been withholding weapons and ammunitions to Israel. Israel—America’s closest ally, fighting for its life, fighting against Iran and our other common enemies. Secretary Blinken assured me the administration is working day and night to remove these bottlenecks. I certainly hope that’s the case. It should be the case. During World War ii, Churchill told the United States, “Give us the tools, we’ll do the job.” And I say, “Give us the tools, and we’ll finish the job a lot faster.”

Netanyahu claimed he told Blinken this in a previous meeting, but his public disclosure made the White House livid.

“President Biden’s top advisers were enraged by the video,” wrote Axios. It quoted an unnamed Israeli official saying, “The Americans are fuming. Bibi’s video made a lot of damage.”

Hours after Netanyahu published the video, U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein personally delivered President Joe Biden’s rebuke to Netanyahu. Axios reported Biden canceled a high-profile meeting with Israeli officials that was supposed to be held today. “This decision,” Axios’s U.S. sources stated, “makes it clear that there are consequences for pulling such stunts.”

The same day, the Wall Street Journal reported the U.S. is withholding a sale of F-35 fighter jets despite Congress approving the sale last month. According to Netanyahu, this kind of withholding has been happening for months.

Some suspect this doesn’t have to do with the war in Gaza but the brewing conflict with Lebanon. Since January, the U.S. has been severely limiting its deliveries of heavy munitions for fighter jets and artillery—the kinds of weapons Israel would need if a war with Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah ever broke out.

“The United States [told Israel it] absolutely opposes any Israeli offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon,” analyst Caroline Glick said on June 19. “The United States does not support … the 2,000-pound bombs that the president put a hold on, even though they were already allocated and signed into law by Congress.”

Whatever the case, Netanyahu evidently thinks going public is the only way to pressure the U.S. government to back down. But instead, it is doubling down. Such unnecessary jabs may seem strange, but these kinds of diplomatic antics marginalizing Israel were commonplace during Barack Obama’s presidency. The Biden administration has continued Obama’s policies.

One may argue that war in Lebanon benefits nobody and this is America’s way of restraining an overzealous friend. But this is more than mere cautious restraint from war doves or carryover policy from a past administration. This is a calculated attempt to undermine Israel’s security.

Hezbollah is the one that has been bombing Israel since October. Hezbollah is the one that is violating the authority of the United Nations by stationing its troops past a southern buffer zone. Hezbollah exists for the purpose of annihilating Israel. It’s making it all but impossible for Israel not to respond. And the U.S. is still trying to force Israel to stand down.

A prophecy in Daniel 8 elaborates on what Israel faces today: “And out of one of them came a little horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the Glorious Land. … He even exalted himself as high as the Prince of the host; and by him the daily sacrifices were taken away, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down. Because of transgression, an army was given over to the horn to oppose the daily sacrifices; and he cast truth down to the ground. He did all this and prospered” (verses 9, 11-12; New King James Version).

In the Bible, a horn is a symbol for a king or empire (compare with Daniel 7:24). Anciently, this prophecy was fulfilled through Antiochus iv Epiphanes, a Greek king who did everything he could to stamp out the Jewish people and crush their faith.

“While peoples in other areas were allowed to keep their religions,” Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry writes in America Under Attack, “Antiochus wrathfully destroyed many Jewish men, women and children, and tried to destroy the Jewish faith itself. He robbed the temple, set up a pagan altar and an idol of himself inside it, murdered or enslaved tens of thousands of Jews in Jerusalem, and burned and demolished much of the city.”

But the prophecy ultimately is fulfilled in the “latter time” (Daniel 8:23). This is a prophecy for today.

There is another man who, like the ancient Antiochus, wants to attack the “glorious land,” who wants to trample over the people of God and destroy their nation. And this agenda has everything to do with what is going on between the U.S. and Israel.

“America has been ruled from within by another type of Antiochus,” Mr. Flurry writes. This man’s influence is still alive and powerful—in America and the world.

To learn more, request a free copy of America Under Attack.