Michael Herzog, a former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. and brother of Israeli president Isaac Herzog, complained in an interview with UAE-based The National News that Israeli military operations in Lebanon have been put in “a strait jacket” by the U.S. pursuit of peace with Iran. “Trump asked Israel to restrain itself and not proactively take action in Lebanon, and Israel abided by that. We’re really restraining ourselves,” Herzog said.
Despite this, the National News notes, Israeli attacks have killed nearly 300 people in Lebanon since the agreement was signed, according to figures from the Lebanese Health Ministry, raising the overall death toll since Israel launched a bombing campaign and invaded southern Lebanon to 4,192 on Wednesday.
Herzog, a retired brigadier general who served as ambassador to the U.S. from 2021 until January last year, said Israel was holding back from bombing Beirut, weeks after its most recent attack this month. “Our hands are tied—we cannot bring the full weight of our forces, because it might undermine a US-Iran deal, and this is very problematic for Israelis and puts us into a kind of straitjacket in Lebanon.”
