How Iran turned the tables on Israel
Beyond the terms of the US-Iran deal, Tehran has also upended Netanyahu’s strategy of targeting Iranian proxies by creating a new deterrent against future Israeli attacks.
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US President Donald Trump (right) with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago last December. Relations between the two leaders have soured over the US-Iran deal.
PHOTO: TIERNEY L..CROSS/NYTIMES
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not famous for being shy. He ruled the Jewish state for 18 out of the 26 years of this century, largely through his ability to talk his way out of any tight corner.
Yet when the latest US-Iran ceasefire deal was made public, it took him more than 24 hours to say anything meaningful about the agreement with Iran’s clerical rulers, a regime he had spent decades trying to overthrow. He was silent on June 17 as US President Donald Trump signed the interim agreement to end the war with Iran in Versailles. Among other things, the memorandum of understanding states that the ceasefire includes the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, and that Israel would have to withdraw from Lebanon under any final agreement.
