The reported response of leading Israeli political figures to the U.S.-Iran MOU was universally negative, particularly with respect to Lebanon, where Tehran expects President Trump to enforce an end to the war by Israel.
Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed Monday that the Israeli military will remain in southern Lebanon and warned that if Iran strikes, it will be hit “with full force,” promising that Israel will resist any pressure from the U.S. to end hostilities in Lebanon, reported The Times of Israel. Katz insisted that Israel will not withdraw from southern Lebanon, where it is battling the Iran-backed Hezbollah “despite all the existing pressures and those that will still come.”
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I are leading a clear policy that determines that the IDF will remain in the security zones in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza, without any time limit, to protect the border and Israeli communities from there against jihadist elements,” Katz said in a statement. He said the security zones will be “cleared of local residents, and all terror infrastructure, above and below ground, including the houses in the contact-line villages that served as terror outposts, will be destroyed.”
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the agreement was “bad for Israel and for the entire free world. Period.”
The opposition joined in, calling Netanyahu a failure. Opposition leader Yair Lapid said Netanyahu “lost the war,” and collapsed in the “moment of truth,” adding: “There has never, ever, been a more absolute failure than Netanyahu’s diplomatic failure on the Iranian front.”
