This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert. [Photo by BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP via Getty Images]
A potential agreement between the US and Iran could be seen as a “betrayal” in Israel, a former Israeli prime minister told Irish public broadcaster RTE, Anadolu reports.
“I think that maybe from the point of view of the original position of Netanyahu, it may be interpreted as a betrayal,” Ehud Olmert said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He said Netanyahu would be unlikely to say so publicly because he is “entirely, completely dependent on the relations and support” of US President Donald Trump.
Though the details of the agreement were not yet fully known, Olmert argued that there appeared to be “a big margin” between the initial expectations of the US and Israel when military operations began and the current understanding between Washington and Tehran.
Olmert said he believed “the door is open” to an agreement between Israel and Lebanon, adding that Israel should withdraw from southern Lebanon as part of negotiations with the Lebanese government.
“We don’t need any territory in the south of Lebanon… we should pull out completely from the south of Lebanon and make all the necessary adjustments for territorial agreement, and we should try to make peace,” he added.
He said expectations that the Iranian regime would collapse were unrealistic, arguing that Tehran had endured significant challenges over decades and that such assumptions were “not serious.”
Both the US and Iran appeared to be seeking “a reasonable way to restore the situation to what it was before the war started,” he added.
“And the Iranians were very successful,” Olmert said.
Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes’ concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country’s economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem on December 9, 2024 [MAYA ALLERUZZO/POOL/AFP via Getty Images]
Israeli analysts sharply criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, describing him as a “failure” and a “liar,” while noting that US President Donald Trump “humiliated” him by excluding him from an agreement with Iran to end their military conflict, Anadolu reports.
On Monday evening, Netanyahu acknowledged that he was unaware of the details of the memorandum of understanding reached between Washington and Tehran to end the war launched by the US and Israel against Iran on Feb. 28.
Netanyahu claimed he had saved Israelis from “nuclear annihilation” by launching the war against Iran and acknowledged differences of opinion with Trump, saying such disagreements “exist in the best of families.”
While Trump said Monday that the US and Iran had already signed the agreement and that the Strait of Hormuz “will be fully reopened by Friday,” Tehran has said only that the memorandum is scheduled to be signed in Swtizerland on June 19.
Observers say the prior electronic signing of the deal appears to have enabled an immediate temporary ceasefire and the lifting of a US naval blockade on Iran, while the Friday ceremony is expected to formalize the agreement and launch a 60-day period of technical negotiations.
‘Architect of failure’
Haaretz columnist Yossi Verter launched a scathing attack on Netanyahu in an article headlined: “Without shame, the architect of failure claimed he saved Israel from collective death. It was another lie among many.”
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands at the height of what any objective expert would define as a colossal strategic failure for the State of Israel and all he has to tell its citizens is: ‘Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, not as long as I am prime minister’,” he wrote.
Netanyahu “has been saying that for 30 years. Yet in the same breath, at his press conference on Monday, Netanyahu claimed Israel had been a hair’s breadth away from ‘mass death’ – a catastrophe he supposedly prevented,” he added.
Tel Aviv and Washington accuse Tehran of pursuing nuclear weapons that threaten Israel and US allies in the region. Iran, however, maintains that its nuclear program is exclusively peaceful, says it does not seek to develop nuclear weapons and insists it poses no threat to other states.
Israel, which occupies Palestinian territory as well as land in Lebanon and Syria, is widely believed to be the only country in the Middle East with a nuclear arsenal, although it has never officially acknowledged possessing one and is not subject to safeguards by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Verter said previous boasts by Netanyahu about “historic achievements for generations” and claims that Iran’s nuclear project had been pushed back by decades “seemed to have dissolved into the sour fog that has descended on Israel.”
“Gone, too, are the lofty goals that accompanied every confrontation with Iran: toppling the regime, or at least creating the conditions for its downfall; eliminating the nuclear and ballistic threats; severing Tehran’s ties to its proxy organizations,” he added.
Netanyahu “has no idea what is contained in the memorandum of understanding the US and Iran digitally signed behind his back. The Iranians know. The Pakistanis know. Presumably the Qataris know. Netanyahu, it seems, does not,” the columnist said.
He added that Netanyahu “sought to minimize the crisis in his relationship with Trump, whom he notably refrained from showering with his usual praise,” saying “True. But in the best families, disagreements are not usually accompanied by the daily insults, humiliations and public snubs coming from an increasingly impatient American president.”
Verter further accused Netanyahu of making a mix of half-truths, exaggerations and manipulations that dominated the event like “we destroyed the Iranian navy.”
He also challenged Netanyahu’s assertion that Israel prevented Hezbollah’s Radwan Force from invading Israel, calling it “an utter lie.”
Verter said Netanyahu claimed that the Israeli and American air forces inflicted cumulative damage on Iran worth “hundreds of billions of dollars – some estimate a trillion.”
He concluded that Netanyahu’s press conference “projected defeat,” adding that even when he declared that he would “run and win” Israel’s next election, he sounded somewhat skeptical himself.
‘His show is over’
Maariv columnist Ben Caspit wrote an article titled: “Netanyahu’s show is over: Trump threw him under the bus.”
Caspit questioned Netanyahu’s repeated warnings that Israel had “escaped certain death”, asking who had placed the country in such a position in the first place.
He argued that invoking the threat of “annihilation” was intended to obscure responsibility for Israel’s failures regarding Iran.
“Once again, Israel was left outside the picture,” he added.
Netanyahu has been wanted by the International Criminal Court since 2024 over accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip during Israel’s genocidal war, which has killed more than 73,000 people and injured over 173,000 others since October 2023.
Caspit noted that Netanyahu did not mention Trump by name during his press conference, even during the question-and-answer session.
“He also admitted he knew nothing about the agreement that was signed electronically without his knowledge,” Caspit wrote. “It is reminiscent of another agreement signed in 2015.”
“Netanyahu always ends up in the same position,” he continued. “He is pushed aside, thrown under the bus, and left standing in the hallway like a scolded child waiting for a verdict that was delivered in his absence.”
Questioning Netanyahu’s claims of success, Caspit wrote: “Yesterday he boasted that ‘we inflicted severe damage on Iran’s economy.’ Fine—but so what? They could soon become an even greater economic power than before.”
He added that Iran could ultimately “impose fees on transit through the Strait of Hormuz,” while sanctions may be lifted and hundreds of billions of dollars in frozen assets released.
“So what value is the damage we inflicted if it can be repaired so quickly?” Caspit asked.
“Without shame, the architect of failure claimed he had saved Israel from annihilation. That was just another lie among many.”
In a separate analysis published by Walla news portal, commentator Barak Seri argued that Netanyahu’s sense of triumph “turned within a single day into his greatest concern and greatest humiliation.”
Seri noted that Netanyahu had not addressed the Israeli media since March despite the wars involving Iran and Hezbollah and missile attacks that caused casualties and widespread damage in Israel, choosing instead to speak almost exclusively to foreign outlets, particularly American media.
“But last night he decided to speak,” Seri wrote. “The reason was the dismal outcome of the agreement with Iran and the bitter sense of anxiety prevailing in Israel, including among his own supporters.”
He added that senior Israeli officials viewed the deal as “bad and dangerous for Israel,” describing it as “a real disaster” that was reached without Israel’s interests being taken into account.
Seri argued that “none of the war’s objectives were achieved” — not eliminating Iran’s nuclear threat, not removing the ballistic missile threat, not creating conditions for regime change, and not addressing Tehran’s continued support for Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.
Mocking one of the outcomes touted by supporters of the US-Iran agreement, he wrote: “The Strait of Hormuz has been opened. What a great achievement — it was open before the war.”
“Trump’s harsh and humiliating reversal against Netanyahu and Israel, accompanied by reports of difficult conversations, insults and threats, quickly leaked to the media,” Seri said. “Trump subjected Netanyahu to a genuine public humiliation.”
The US is a main ally to Israel and generally provides Tel Aviv with military, financial and political support.
Israel has occupied Palestinian territory and areas in Lebanon and Syria for decades and rejects withdrawal from those territories as well as the establishment of an independent Palestinian state envisioned in relevant UN resolutions.
Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes’ concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country’s economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Former Israeli Prime Minister and leader of Israel Democratic party, Ehud Barak speaks at the Party’s Election campaign event in Tel Aviv on July 17, 2019. [Gili Yaari/NurPhoto via Getty Images]
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak on Sunday called for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be removed “with sticks and stones” if he attempts to undermine the upcoming general election, Anadolu reports.
Barak, who served as Israel’s prime minister from 1999 to 2001, made the remarks in an interview with Israel’s public broadcaster KAN.
“I fear Netanyahu may try to sabotage the elections, and he can do it very easily,” Barak said. “If he tries, we will have no choice but to remove him with sticks and stones.”
Netanyahu, 76, has led the current government since late December 2022. His coalition has been widely described as the most right-wing since Israel was established on Palestinian territories in 1948.
The Knesset’s current term expires in October 2026, with elections expected to be held in September or October.
Barak argued that Netanyahu “could sabotage the elections by launching operations in Lebanon that would provoke retaliation from Hezbollah and Iran.
“Netanyahu wants an endless war because he understands that ending it would accelerate his trial,” Barak said. “Just as he obstructed some prisoner-exchange deals (with Hamas), he also blocked the possibility of progress in Lebanon.”
Netanyahu is currently standing trial in Israel on corruption charges and is also wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) since 2024 on allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Barak also criticized the emerging agreement between the US and Iran. “In one word: bad. In two words: very bad,” he said.
He warned that “Israel is paying the price for Netanyahu’s arrogance and lack of foresight,” adding that the arrangement under discussion was “not an agreement, but a memorandum of understanding that failed to address either missiles or Iran’s regional allies.”
Barak argued that “none of the objectives of the war against Iran have been achieved.”
The remarks drew immediate criticism from Netanyahu’s allies.
Boaz Bismuth, a Likud lawmaker and chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, called for a criminal investigation into Barak for what he described as legitimizing violence against the prime minister.
“He should be sent to a psychiatrist, and if he is found mentally fit, a criminal investigation should be opened against him immediately,” Bismuth said in a post on US social media company X.
While US President Donald Trump said an agreement with Iran that would open the Strait of Hormuz would be signed on Sunday, Tehran has disputed the timeline and says the signing could happen in the coming days.
Since the April 8 ceasefire mediated by Pakistan, efforts aimed at ending the war launched by the US and Israel against Iran on Feb. 28 have continued.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
U.S. President Donald Trump (R) welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, United States on December 29, 2025. [Amos Ben-Gershom (GPO)/Handout – Anadolu Agency]
Israel agreed to halt airstrikes on Iran upon a request from US President Donald Trump, but will continue its offensive in Lebanon “at full force,” a senior Israeli official said Monday, Anadolu reports.
“At Trump’s request, we are halting strikes on Iran,” the official said in statements carried by the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.
“We are continuing in Lebanon at full force according to the equation that if they fire toward the settlements – we will strike in Dahieh” in Beirut.
The official said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conversion with Trump over the phone “was overall good.”
Israel’s public broadcaster KAN, citing an unnamed Israeli official, also said the army “will cease fire in Iran, but not in southern Lebanon.”
Iran’s military said early Monday it was halting attacks on Israel, warning of a “crushing” response if Israeli attacks against Lebanon continued.
Tensions escalated on Sunday, when Israel bombed the Lebanese capital Beirut, despite an ongoing ceasefire, prompting Iran to launch missiles at northern Israel in retaliation, with Israel launching several waves of airstrikes against Iran.
Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed more than 3,600 people, injured over 11,000 others and displaced more than 1.6 million since March 2, according to Lebanese officials.
In a post on his Truth Social platform early Monday, Trump called on Israel and Iran to stop fighting “immediately” in the wake of their tit-for-tat airstrikes.
The region has been on edge since the US and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran in late February, triggering Iranian retaliation on Israel and other regional countries hosting US assets.
A temporary ceasefire was reached on April 8, but negotiations later stalled amid disputes over its implementation and subsequent regional developments.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says Sundown Syndrome is a dead givaway and he wishes someone would Lock Him Up
Article by republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
US service members conduct an Armed Forces Full Honors Arrival Ceremony for the outgoing head of the Israeli military, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, in Conmy Hall at Fort Myer, Virginia on February 18, 2025. (Photo by Sgt. Nathan Winter/US Army)
“At a time when Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza… Congress should be cutting off military support—not integrating the US military and Israeli defense sector,” said one critic.
A US congressional committee on Thursday rejected an amendment to strip a provision from next year’s Pentagon funding bill aimed at deepening integration of the US and Israeli militaries under the guise of reducing aid.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) introduced an amendment to strike Section 224—which would establish a formal “United States–Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative”—from the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act. The proposed NDAA authorizes $1.15 trillion in baseline military spending, while the Trump administration’s full defense request seeks an unprecedented, debt-exploding $1.5 trillion in armed forces and related funding for the coming fiscal year.
Section 224 would require the US defense secretary to designate a Pentagon executive agent responsible for coordinating and expanding US-Israel defense technology cooperation.
In Thursday’s voice vote, members of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) from both parties rejected the amendment to remove Section 2024 from the NDAA, with only Khanna and Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) backing the measure.
The House voted today on a new measure to fuse elements of the Israeli and US militaries, particularly on the cyberweapons front. Section 224, as its known, is included in the National Defense Authorization Act. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., introduced an amendment to strip it from… https://t.co/xWAiZQ03BCpic.twitter.com/rLUViMeKLv
While proponents of Section 224 contend that the measure would reduce US taxpayer funding for Israel, Khanna argued that the provision amounts to a blank check for a country that most Americans oppose sending more aid to.
“The American people are tired of the arrogance and insolence of Prime Minister Netanyahu telling America what we should do,” the congressman said Thursday while promoting his amendment. “The entire country of Israel has a GDP that is less than a single town in my district, yet somehow Netanyahu thinks he could tell the American people what we should do.”
“I am for Team America,” Khanna added. “I am for the interests of this country, and I believe that’s what [President] Donald Trump ran on. That includes American interests against any foreign country. We should have American sovereignty and make it clear that we strike 224. If we want to give aid to Israel, if we want to sell them weapons, that should be a vote for the entire Congress.”
This is a simple question. Do we do more for Israel now or less? I introduced an amendment to strike 224 because I am for the American people calling the shots, not Netanyahu. I am for Team America. pic.twitter.com/FTWToXOl2T
In a letter to Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.)—who is not on the HASC—Netanyahu said he is “heartened” by Section 224’s plan to “develop a new Memorandum of Understanding with the United States government” that will reduce “US financial military assistance over the next decade” and replace it with “a new framework of joint defense cooperation, codevelopment, coproduction, and mutual investment.”
The US has provided more than $20 billion in armed aid to Israel during the Biden and Trump administrations since Netanyahu launched the genocidal war on Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023. The current 10-year Memorandum of Understanding between the US and Israel, signed in 2016 during former President Barack Obama’s tenure, provided Israel with $38 billion in US military aid and expires in 2028.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.)—who has partnered with Khanna on introducing or supporting war powers resolutions aimed at curbing Trump’s ability to wage unconstitutional wars in countries including Yemen, Venezuela, and Iran—said last month that if Section 224 made it out of committee, he would work with Khanna to “offer an amendment to strip it from the bill on the floor.”
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) is urging Americans to contact their members of Congress to tell them to reject Section 224.
U.S. tax dollars have bene funding Israel’s war crimes. Section 224 would make that funding automatic, classified, and permanent.
Demand congress to reject section 224!
📢 TAKE ACTION: 👉 Send a letter to your representative: [https://t.co/R00bzrtYrZ] 👉 Call the House Armed…
“This is not ‘America First.’ It is Israel First,” ADC argues on its website. “The resolution languageattached to this proposal gives it away: it expresses support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s initiative to transition the US–Israel relationship toward mutual defense cooperation and joint economic investment. This language turns Congress into a vehicle for advancing Netanyahu’s agenda and asks the American people to treat it as their own national security policy.”
“Section 224 would move US support for Israel away from the more transparent foreign aid framework and into a maze of Pentagon procurement, licensing, data-sharing, and backdoor deals that are harder for Congress, taxpayers, and future administrations to monitor, cap, condition, or unwind,” the group continued. “Concerns of undefined ‘network integration’ and ‘data fusion’ should alarm every American who cares about sovereignty, privacy, civil liberties, and democratic oversight.”
“At a time when Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, exporting surveillance technologies used against activists and journalists around the world, marketing military technology tested on Palestinians, and carrying out terrorist attacks as seen in the cell phone [bombings] in Lebanon, Congress should be cutting off military support—not integrating the US military and Israeli defense sector and making accountability harder than ever,” ADC added.
In an opinion piece published this week by Common Dreams, Ben Freeman, director of the Democratizing Foreign Policy Program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, wrote that “lawmakers should reject Section 224 from the NDAA to avoid deep integration with Israel’s military at a time when a growing number of Americans oppose Israel’s actions in the region.”
“This unprecedented level of US-Israeli military integration stands in stark contrast to the traditional aid model of defense cooperation, in which Israel already stood out as the top recipient of US military assistance,” Freeman said.
Article by republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it’s fun to kill everyone …Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says Sundown Syndrome is a dead givaway and he wishes someone would Lock Him Up
