Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on full damage control Monday to defend the US-Iran peace deal after facing backlash from even his own allies who slammed the agreement as a wreck.
Netanyahu insisted during a news conference that Israel’s war with Iran was successful after joint strikes with the US took out huge swaths of Iran’s leadership and military infrastructure.
“We removed, for years to come, this danger hanging over us of the elimination of Israel’s population,” Netanyahu said. “That is what we did. We saved the State of Israel from annihilation.”
Netanyahu also avoided direct criticism of President Trump and the US deal — and underscored his close connections with Washington ahead of a new Israeli election in October.
The prime minister notably called the peace deal “Trump’s decision,” rather than one made together with Israel, yet he insisted he was an equal partner with the US.
“We have a relationship of partners who know each other,” Netanyahu said. “Many times, we agree. Sometimes we don’t agree. That happens in the best families.”
Despite the widespread destruction, analysts have warned that Iran’s military capabilities still pose a significant threat, with the many of its missile silos still intact and being dug out.
Right-wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich bashed the Memorandum of Understanding that would pave the way for sanctions to be lifted on Iran — all without the regime change Netanyahu was pushing for.
The agreement is “bad for Israel and for the entire free world. Period,” Smotrich said, according to the Times of Israel.
Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed Monday to reject any terms in the peace deal that calls for Israel to withdraw its military from southern Lebanon, a key demand being pushed by Tehran and mediators in Pakistan.
“We will not compromise on Israel’s security interests and the protection of our citizens, and we will not withdraw from the security zones,” Katz said, adding that his armies would remain in Syria and Gaza as well.
Amit Segal, a right-wing pundit and Israel Channel 12 News political analyst, also slammed the deal as a “complete surrender.”
Opposition leader Yair Lapid went as far as to say that Netanyahu “lost the war,” describing the prime minister as unable to say no to President Trump.
“There has never, ever, been a more absolute failure than Netanyahu’s diplomatic failure on the Iranian front,” Lapid said.
Netanyahu had defended the war in Iran as necessary to diminish the threat the Islamic Republic posed to Israel by taking out its leadership and ballistic missile arsenal.
Those two goals, however, have yet to appear in the US-Iran agreement, whose full details remain under wraps.
Netanyahu insisted that regardless of how the deal finalizes, he will make sure that Israel continues to decimate Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
“With an agreement or without an agreement, Iran will not have nuclear weapons — not today and not tomorrow. As long as I am prime minister of Israel, it will not happen,” he added.
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