Israel went to war with Iran, but Netanyahu may be the loser US-Israel War on Iran News

The headline on the front page of Israeli news website Haaretz on Tuesday summed up the general sentiment: “Iran Fiasco Is Netanyahu’s Biggest Failure Since October 7”.

After three and a half months of war with Iran, Israel’s main ally, the United States, broke the temporary agreement without, apparently, Israel’s offer.

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In fact, the country of Iran, which Israel’s politics have been dealing with for years risk foundit still exists, and, through its control over the Strait of Hormuz, is undoubtedly more powerful than ever.

Closer to home, Israel’s ability to continue its military operations in Lebanon, which it said was necessary to protect against rocket fire from Lebanon’s Iran-allied Hezbollah group, must now be weighed against its ability to cause problems between the US and Iran ahead of the signing of the agreement, which is expected later this week.

Great criticism

Opposition to the deal in Israel has come from both the center and the right.

Gadi Eisenkot, a moderate who is one of the favorites to oust Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in elections Later this year, he was unflinching in his criticism of the Israeli leader and the US-Iran deal.

Eisenkot criticized what he called “the negative consequences of a failed government”, pointing to what he called a “huge gulf” between “Netanyahu’s empty promises of total victory” and the plan of what the agreement between the US and Iran will say.

The far-right members of Netanyahu’s coalition government – Defense Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich – were present. often uncompromisingand a possible eye on elections. “We should not act according to the agreements between Trump and (Mojtaba) Khamenei,” Ben-Gvir said of the US and Israeli leaders, while Smotrich called it a “bad job”.

Netanyahu, after spending years pushing for war with Iran and announcing it to Israel, knows that ending the conflict is. not popular in the family. The prime minister went to great pains to distance himself from what he called “Trump’s plan” to end the war when he said he was an equal partner of the US in fighting the war.

Denouncing what critics say is Israel’s predicament before signing the deal this weekend, Netanyahu instead did well, telling a press conference on Monday: “We have removed, for years to come, the danger hanging over us of the removal of the Israeli people,” he said.

“This is what we did. We saved the state of Israel from destruction,” he continued, providing a clear version of what he said after June 2025. The 12-day war with Iranwhen he said that he had scored Israel a “great victory” over Iran that “will last for generations”.

“It’s not playing well, and its claims are not credible,” former Israeli government adviser Daniel Levy told Al Jazeera. “The idea was that if you drag America into the war, then it is given that Iran will be crushed and that the things that Israel cannot achieve in terms of the destruction of the regime and the defeat of Iran can be achieved by America,” he said, realizing that this was not the case.

Levy continued, pointing out how Israel’s expectations of how the war would unfold were changed by how the country saw itself in the region. “The very idea is compounded by colonialism and Israeli indifference,” he said. “The idea that Iran could outsmart, outsmart, and gain power was not in the public eye.”

Iran at the top?

Much discussion within Israel has focused on Iran’s role as a regional power, and as a nuclear power, after the end of the war.

US President, Donald Trump he insisted that Iran will not get nuclear weapons. However, it is still unclear how the US intends to persuade Iran to hand over its stockpiles of enriched uranium after a war that many Iranians believe has been won, especially because of the financial fallout from the proper closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

“Netanyahu brought a great disaster to Israel,” said Ahron Bregman, a senior lecturer in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. “He started a war with Iran aimed at overthrowing his government, but the government is still there and stronger than ever. Iran will rebuild its missiles.”

It is also unclear how long Israel can rely on US support for its invasion of Lebanon. Iran has long made a ban on Israel’s invasion of Lebanon a condition of any ceasefire agreement. But Netanyahu has said that the deal between the US and Iran does not extend to Israel’s freedom of movement in Lebanon, creating what experts say could be a stumbling block to any end, and a growing source of tension between Israel and its allies in Washington.

On Tuesday, Trump sought to emphasize that difference, saying he was “not happy” with Israel’s actions in Lebanon, adding that Netanyahu had to be “reliable” when it reached Israel’s neighbor to the north.

“Lebanon will be a flashpoint, a trigger for the coming conflict between Israel and Iran,” Bregman said. “Will the US cooperate with Israel to fight Iran again? I doubt that any US president in his right mind would attempt any war with Iran.”

“Geography is on Iran’s side, and it is an economic nuclear bomb that the Iranians will undoubtedly use again,” he concluded, referring to the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s ability to block oil from passing through.

Netanyahu remains Israel’s most powerful prime minister, and few want to count him out in this year’s elections. But the historical judgments of his recent actions are beginning to converge, Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli ambassador and consul general in New York, told Al Jazeera.

“Now he finds himself coming to the election that took place on October 7 (2023 under the leadership of Hamas in Israel), the failure in Lebanon, and the terrible war against Iran behind him,” he said.

“In the end, Netanyahu looks like a man who was given the opportunity of a lifetime and wasted it. In the end he had everything he loved: the US president, Iran alone and without allies, and military and technological opportunities, and he shot,” said Pinkas. “For 30 years, he has been talking about this, and when it came, he shot it down.

“He is right that he has changed the politics of the Middle East. He has done it in favor of Iran.”