Trump and Netanyahu spoke by phone as US weighed renewed Iran strikes, WSJ says

Update, 1 November, 05:08 Israel time

Ynet has placed the reported call in the context of the US midterm elections, due this week. In a Hebrew-language analysis, Ynet wrote that Israel is waiting on the outcome of the US vote, which it described as a kind of referendum on Trump's performance. The outlet said the president faces opponents of the war from both sides of the American political spectrum. It added that, amid political deadlock in Israel, preparations for a possible resumption of fighting are intensifying. Ynet again attributed the call itself to The Wall Street Journal.

The Times of Israel, in a fuller write-up, specified that the two leaders spoke on Saturday morning, and that Trump's Palm Beach remarks came later the same day. An updated N12 alert now describes the conversation as having taken place yesterday.

The detail linking the call to a meeting with senior commanders, previously carried only by The Jerusalem Post, has also been relayed by Joe Truzman of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, who wrote that the call followed Trump's session with commanders on options for restarting major combat operations. Like the other accounts, his post cites the Journal report rather than independent sourcing.

No new report quotes either leader, the White House or the Prime Minister's Office on the call.

The story as first reported

US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a phone conversation while Washington was preparing plans to resume military strikes on Iran, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal that was picked up by several Israeli news outlets. The Times of Israel, citing the Journal, said the two leaders talked by phone in the morning, with the information attributed to people familiar with the call.

The Jerusalem Post reported that Trump spoke with Netanyahu shortly after a discussion of military operations with senior commanders. Hebrew-language outlets N12 and Ynet also carried brief alerts. N12's foreign desk wrote that the conversation took place against the background of tension with Iran, and Ynet described it as a US report that the two had talked about Iran.

What the reports say about strike planning

The reports agree that the call came as renewed strikes on Iran were being prepared, but they differ on who was doing the planning. The Times of Israel's summary of the Journal story describes the United States as laying plans to resume strikes. The Jerusalem Post said the US and Israel had reportedly drawn up plans together for renewed strikes. None of the reports available here sets out what those plans involve, and none says whether any decision to carry them out has been made.

The phrase "resume" or "renew" reflects that the reports refer to an existing conflict. One Times of Israel item refers to strikes carried out by the US "in the war", which indicates that American military action against Iran has already taken place. The reports do not describe the earlier strikes in detail.

Trump's comments in Palm Beach

Trump, who was attending a Halloween event at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida property, on October 31, 2026, gave reporters in Palm Beach a mixed account of relations with Tehran. According to The Times of Israel, he said negotiations with Iran were "going fine" but called the Islamic Republic "not very reliable."

He also suggested that military work remained to be done. Trump said there were still "one or two sites" to deal with and claimed this could be done in 10 minutes. He named Pickaxe Mountain as a location that would need attention. The Times of Israel noted that Western intelligence has flagged Pickaxe Mountain as a probable storage location for nuclear material, and that the US has not hit it so far in the war.

Diplomacy and the military option

Earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Trump would prefer a diplomatic solution to the conflict with Iran, while also believing that the United States is capable of achieving its aims through military means, The Times of Israel reported. Rubio, as secretary of state, is the most senior US diplomat, and his remarks frame the two tracks that Trump himself described: talks that are continuing, alongside a stated readiness to use force.

For readers following from abroad, the relationship between Trump and Netanyahu has been a central channel for coordination on Iran. Netanyahu is Israel's prime minister, and the reports place this call within the wider pattern of close contact between the two governments over Iranian nuclear and military activity. The Times of Israel's coverage also appeared alongside its reporting on the 2026 Israeli election campaign, which forms part of the domestic backdrop in Israel.

Who reported what

The original reporting on the call comes from The Wall Street Journal, which relied on unnamed people familiar with the conversation. The Israeli outlets cited here, The Times of Israel, The Jerusalem Post, N12 and Ynet, relayed that report rather than confirming the call through their own sources. The detail about senior commanders appears only in The Jerusalem Post's account. Trump's remarks in Palm Beach and Rubio's comments were reported by The Times of Israel.

What the reports do not say

The reports do not quote either leader on the content of the call, and neither the White House nor the Prime Minister's Office is cited confirming it or describing what was discussed. They do not give the exact time or length of the conversation beyond describing it as taking place in the morning. They do not explain whether the strike plans are a joint US and Israeli effort or an American one, and the sources differ on this point. They do not identify the other site or sites Trump referred to besides Pickaxe Mountain, and they do not say where negotiations with Iran stand or who is taking part in them.