With Qatar Attack, Israel Again Leaves Trump in the Dark

President Trump said on Tuesday that he found out about Israel’s airstrike in Qatar from the United States military, rather than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he often describes as both a friend and his strongest ally in the Middle East.

It was a familiar surprise. In June, Israel launched a 12-day war with Iran with minimal notice, initially drawing a rebuke from Washington until Mr. Trump decided to join in on what he saw as a winning campaign.

Mr. Netanyahu has made use of his relationship with Mr. Trump to exercise bold attacks like the one on Hamas leadership on Tuesday, often using American weapons with little or no notice to Washington. And each time, he has learned that Mr. Trump and his administration will grumble about it as they did on Tuesday, but ultimately decide to let it pass unpunished.

On Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Trump emphasized that the Israelis had left the United States in the dark again. “I was very unhappy about it — very unhappy about every aspect,” he said. “We’ve got to get the hostages back. But I was very unhappy about the way that went down.”

He said he would release a full statement about how he learned about the attack on Wednesday.

In a social media post earlier in the day, he tried to distance himself from the attack, while both chastising and praising Mr. Netanyahu for carrying it out.

“This was a decision made by Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me,” Mr. Trump wrote. “Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a Sovereign Nation and close Ally of the United States, that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker Peace, does not advance Israel or America’s goals.”