{"id":494868,"date":"2026-06-16T03:17:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T03:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/494868\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T03:17:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T03:17:15","slug":"israel-cannot-back-iran-deal-that-leaves-threats-intact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/494868\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel cannot back Iran deal that leaves threats intact"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The reported <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/international\/article-899402\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">US-Iran deal<\/a> may be good for oil markets, for a White House that wants the war over, and for a president eager to say he forced Tehran to the table and reopened the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">For Israel, that is not the test.<\/p>\n<p>The test is whether Iran is weaker today than it was before the deal. Has its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/middle-east\/iran-news\/article-895127\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">nuclear program<\/a> been dismantled? Has its enriched uranium been removed? Have its missiles and drones been addressed? Has Hezbollah been pushed back? Has Israel\u2019s freedom to act been preserved?<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">So far, the answers are unclear. That should worry us.<\/p>\n<p>The warning is coming from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/israel-news\/defense-news\/article-899374\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">President Donald Trump\u2019<\/a>s own side: Iran hawks, pro-Israel conservatives, and lawmakers who backed pressure on Tehran, supported the airstrikes, and believed this campaign could finally change the balance against the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Youths ride vehicles while waving flags of Iraq, Iran, Lebanon and Hezbollah in Baghdad on June 15, 2026, during celebrations following the announcement of a deal to end the war between Iran and the US.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"822\" height=\"829\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/725816.jpeg\"\/>Youths ride vehicles while waving flags of Iraq, Iran, Lebanon and Hezbollah in Baghdad on June 15, 2026, during celebrations following the announcement of a deal to end the war between Iran and the US. (credit: AHMAD AL-RUBAYE \/ AFP via Getty Images)&#8217;A nightmare for Israel&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Sen. Lindsey Graham did not rush to celebrate. He warned that if a deal leaves Iran able to terrorize the Strait of Hormuz and damage Gulf oil infrastructure, it would create \u201ca major shift of the balance of power in the region\u201d and \u201cover time will be a nightmare for Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">That is the right frame. This is about who controls the fear next month, not whether ships move this week.<\/p>\n<p>Graham also set a clear standard: \u201cNo <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/middle-east\/iran-news\/article-899473\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">enrichment<\/a>,\u201d American control of Iran\u2019s highly enriched uranium, an open Strait of Hormuz, an end to Iran\u2019s long-range ballistic-missile program, and an end to its support for terrorist proxies. Saying he is skeptical Iran will agree to terms making the deal \u201csubstantially different than the JCPOA\u201d is \u201can understatement,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">That is where Israel should be, too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Sen. Ted Cruz was sharper. He warned that if Iran ends this war still receiving billions of dollars, still enriching uranium, still moving toward nuclear weapons, and still holding leverage over the Strait of Hormuz, \u201cthat outcome would be a disastrous mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Mark Levin has been even blunter. \u201cA memorandum of understanding, from my perspective, or a final deal will not matter to the Iranian regime,\u201d he said. \u201cThey will never abide by any of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Levin\u2019s explanation was the one Israel knows from experience. Iran\u2019s rulers, he said, view diplomacy \u201cas a last resort, but as a resort to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">That is the fear Israel cannot ignore. Iran does not need to win a war outright. It only needs to survive one, keep its core capabilities, and convince the world to call the pause a breakthrough.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">That is exactly what happened after the 2015 deal. The West treated signatures as a turning point. Tehran treated them as time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Ben Shapiro praised Trump\u2019s Iran airstrikes as \u201cthe single bravest foreign-policy move of my lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">That praise now creates the standard for judging the ending. A campaign sold as historic strength cannot end with Iran surviving, regrouping, and keeping the core of its nuclear and regional leverage.<\/p>\n<p>Iranian defeat, or survival?<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">A ceasefire is valuable if it locks in Iranian defeat. It is dangerous if it locks in Iranian survival.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">The reported 60-day negotiation period is the most troubling part. Sixty days sounds orderly in Washington. In the Middle East, it is enough time for Iran to move assets, rebuild confidence, reframe the war at home, and test how badly the US wants quiet. Tehran knows how to use delay. Hezbollah knows how to use delay. Israel has paid for those delays before.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Lebanon may be the immediate danger. Any arrangement that restrains Israel while leaving Hezbollah in place is unacceptable. Northern Israel cannot be secured by language in a US-Iran memorandum. Kiryat Shmona, Metula, and the Galilee need Hezbollah to be moved, disarmed, and deterred.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Trump deserves credit for understanding Iran\u2019s danger better than many Western leaders. He left the Obama deal. He imposed pressure. He backed Israel at critical moments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">That record makes this moment more serious. Trump should not attach his name to a weaker version of the mistake he once condemned.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">If this agreement removes Iran\u2019s nuclear threat, cuts off its proxies, protects Israel\u2019s freedom of action, and gives the regime no path back to strength, the administration should publish the details and defend them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">If it does less than that, Israel should not applaud.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Neither should Congress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The reported US-Iran deal may be good for oil markets, for a White House that wants the war&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[54,86,85,87,142930,73607,46,43,5839,3336,11605],"class_list":["post-494868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-donald-trump","tag-hezbollah","tag-il","tag-iran","tag-iran-deal","tag-iran-nuclear-threat","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-oil","tag-tehran","tag-uranium"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}