Netanyahu Reportedly Wants to Strike Iran Right After U.S. Midterms, But Trump Wants to Give Negotiations a Chance

President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are disagreeing about the next step in the Iran war, according to a new report.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, Axios detailed that Netanyahu wants to jointly strike Iran after the U.S. midterms on Tuesday, while Trump prefers to give more time for negotiations to play out.

Time, however, could bring different challenges to Netanyahu's plans. The likelihood that the leaders of the Zionist opposition bloc and the Arab parties will form a coalition government which would oust him is growing.

Parties that make up Netanyahu's ruling bloc won 53 seats, while the so-called "Zionist opposition" bloc won 48. The Arab parties, Ra'am and the Joint List, won a total of 19 seats, which means they could be the kingmakers in forming a government with either coalition.

The Telegraph reported on Saturday that the Arab parties are expected to support the opposition bloc, led by former Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, in their bid to form a government.

"The Joint List will recommend Eisenkot to become the candidate for prime minister," Jafar Farah, the director of the Arab-Israeli advocacy group The Mossawa Center, told the British outlet.

For his part, Eisenkot said in September that Ra'am leader Mansour Abbas would not form part of a potential future Eisenkot-led administration because of Abbas' disagreement with certain key principles that, according to Eisenkot, all future coalition partners of his would have to uphold.

Those principles include the recognition of Hamas as a terrorist organization, the acknowledgement that Israel is a Jewish and democratic state and support for the declaration of independence that established the Israeli state in 1948.

On Saturday, Eisenkot released a statement reaffirming that those principles would have to be agreed upon by all members of an Eisenkot-led "Zionist, state-like government with as broad a national consensus as possible." Some outlets interpreted the statement as a sign that Eisenkot was opening the door to the possibility of an Arab-Zionist alliance.

As for U.S.-Iran negotiations, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during the weekend that Trump would rather solve the war "diplomatically."

Speaking to press, Rubio said Trump has not made a decision while negotiations continue, but his threats represent "incredible confidence that if we needed to do something militarily, we would have the ability to do it, and we really we have everything we need to be successful." However, he clarified, the administration "would prefer to do it peacefully."

Trump, on his end, said the conflict will end "very soon, one way or the other." "Either they'll make a deal, or we'll just end it," he added.