Israelis direct fury at Netanyahu after the US and Iran reach an interim peace deal

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israelis from across the political spectrum reacted angrily Monday to the news of an initial deal between the U.S. and Iran, calling it a disaster for Israel and directing their fury at one man: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Israeli leader said at a news conference Monday that “with an agreement, without an agreement,” he would continue fighting to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, which Tehran has long maintained it isn’t trying to do, saying its nuclear program is for civilian purposes.

“As long as I am the prime minister of Israel, it will not happen,” Netanyahu said, emphasizing that the deal was struck by the United States, not Israel, and that he didn’t budge on Iran’s request that Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon be part of the pact.

“Iran wanted us to withdraw from there, but that did not happen. Do you know why it didn’t happen, among other reasons? Because I stood very, very firm,” he said.

But other Israeli government officials, rivals, politicians and commentators were quick to criticize the preliminary deal, marking a sort of informal referendum on the premier’s tenure ahead of elections this fall and underscoring his deepening isolation at home, in the region and, increasingly, from the United States.

Critics say Netanyahu led President Donald Trump into the war with Iran while overpromising what it could achieve, and Trump now might be dragging Israel out of the conflict before it feels ready. They say the prime minister misjudged Trump’s appetite for a protracted conflict, was outflanked by Iran in negotiations and grew increasingly sidelined by the region’s other major players.

“Israel is paying the price of Netanyahu’s hubris and blindness, and the price of the manipulations that he tried to pull on Trump,” former Prime Minister and Netanyahu rival Ehud Barak said in an interview with Israel’s public broadcaster Monday. “Iran emerged stronger; Israel emerged weaker. That is Netanyahu’s strategic responsibility. He failed.”

Yair Lapid, who will challenge Netanyahu in the upcoming elections, wrote Sunday that the deal, which would extend the tenuous ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran and lead to the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, was shaping up to be “one of the most shocking failures in Israel’s foreign and security policy … entirely registered in Netanyahu’s name.”

“It can be fixed, it must be fixed,” he wrote. “Netanyahu can no longer fix it, we will do it.”

Iran deal could hamper Israel’s operation in Lebanon

Even though Israel isn’t party to the deal, it finds itself in something of a quagmire, in part because it invaded southern Lebanon after Iran-backed Hezbollah fired missiles at northern Israeli towns during the first week of the war.

Since negotiations began, Iran has insisted that any deal to wind down the U.S.-Iran front include a cessation of Israeli hostilities in Lebanon. But on Monday, Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed to keep troops in Lebanon.

As negotiations progressed and Trump increasingly sought a way out of war, he grew furious over Israel’s strikes in Beirut, warning they could jeopardize an agreement. In the end, the president decided to end the Iran conflict, even if it curtailed Israel’s options in Lebanon.

That has left Netanyahu in a precarious situation. His relationship with Trump may require downscaling a military campaign in Lebanon that is widely popular in Israel.

“All Hezbollah has to do is get one rocket across into an Israeli town in northern Israel, and then the pressure on Netanyahu — which he’s already hearing from his own base and from the opposition … will ramp up,” said Daniel Shapiro, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel and a Distinguished Fellow at the Atlantic Council.

“It’s going to be very hard to resist that,” Shapiro said. “And that gives a lot of power to control this dynamic to Hezbollah, and essentially to Iran.”

Indeed, some of the more hawkish members of Netanyahu’s ruling coalition have slammed the new deal and urged the prime minister to continue the Lebanon campaign, even if it upsets the U.S. and risks scuttling the agreement.

“We must not compromise on anything less than the dismantling of Hezbollah,” Israel’s ultranationalist national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, wrote on X.

Israelis say Netanyahu did not meet his war goals in Iran

In Lebanon, the deal left the future of Israel’s campaign uncertain. But in Iran, the deal tied Netanyahu’s hands before he met his war goals.

Netanyahu and the U.S. launched the war on Feb. 28 with the aim of destroying Iran’s nuclear ambitions. But nearly four months later, after Iran withstood a withering aerial campaign, Tehran is in a much stronger position, analysts and critics say. It’s proxy network survives and is still able to fire missiles into Israel.

Tehran has been able to exert control over the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important waterways, choking global trade and driving up prices for basic needs worldwide. It is also unclear how much damage was done to Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and ballistic missile program.

“Israel believes that the war delayed the Iranian nuclear program, but did not change its objectives,” political commentator Anna Barsky wrote for Ma’ariv, a major Hebrew daily newspaper. She said Israeli officials are also worried that under its deal with the U.S., Iran could receive a major influx of cash.

According to three regional officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations, the agreement is expected to include the phased lifting of sanctions and a release of frozen Iranian assets.

“Trump signs an agreement that funnels billions to the Ayatollahs’ regime, leaves the nuclear infrastructure intact, preserves the ballistic threat as is, and throws a lifeline to the murderous regime in Tehran,” Yair Golan, center-left party leader and former general, posted on X.