Bibi Netanyahu has once again sabotaged Trump’s “best efforts” to negotiate a peace deal with Iran and Lebanon. After the US president spoke with him and told him to call off attacks on Iran, Israel ignored him and did so anyway:
Trump’s aides…were given the impression that Trump had succeeded in buying a few more days without Israeli retaliation to support the US-Iran talks on a deal.
Following last night’s call, however, Netanyahu convened consultations with senior security officials, after which he informed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that he had decided to carry out strikes in Iran…
He did so despite the US president’s claim: ““I call the shots. I call all the shots. he doesn’t call the shots.,” He even offered a macabre boys-will-be-boys comment after Israel and Iran exchanged a tit-for-tat missile exchange. He declared they both “had their fun.” Nevertheless, Trump doesn’t exert meaningful control over Israel, though Netanyahu does his best to make him think he does.
Even after Iran and Israel ceased their missile exchange and Trump declared the fighting over, Netanyahu ordered an attack on the Beirut suburb of Dahiya, a Hezbollah stronghold. Only a few days earlier, Trump had ordered the Israeli prime minister to abort a similar attack intended to destroy the entire neighborhood. He did so at the US president’s insistence.
The Dahiya assault was a message to the Iranians, who had fired on Israel in retaliation for earlier attacks on the Lebanese capital. Similarly, Iranian missiles fired on Israel were meant to tell Pres. Trump that Iran will not abandon its Hezbollah ally; and that any final peace agreement needs to include Lebanon. Israel, of course, rejects this provision.
Lebanon normalization and its delusions
Nevertheless, the Americans’ response exposed their cluelessness about the Lebanese reality:
“The United States supports Israel’s right to self-defense and stands with the legitimate Government of Lebanon as it works to deliver a better future for its citizens.”
…A U.S. official said Hezbollah has a choice: It “can continue fighting a pointless war, or it can finally allow the return of the displaced and the reconstruction of Lebanon.”
There is no “legitimate government of Lebanon” without Hezbollah. It is an vital member of the tripartite national pact. Excluding it from any negotiation or final deal renders them meaningless. Then they become stopgap measures that will break down at the first hint of dispute between the parties.
As for the claim that Hezbollah withdrawal from the south will allow return of refugees driven from their homes by Israel, or the reconstruction of their homes and villages–it is delusional. Israel invaded and now occupies 20% of Lebanon. It will not withdraw. It will never permit the return of refugees and certainly not reconstruction of the decimated towns. The only way this could happen is if Trump forces it upon Netanyahu. But he will not do so, because he has only one goal: ending the war with Iran. Anything else is secondary. He has no interests in Lebanon except as it pertains to Iran. He will not expend any of his capital to restore Lebanon.
Another media misnomer is the habit of journalists to report (mainly from Israel) that the IDF is attacking “Hezbollah targets.” It is attacking Lebanese civilians. It is destroying their homes, their villages. Not Hezbollah. This is an attack on Lebanon. The Lebanese state. The Lebanese people. It is an attack which Israel has waged for nearly 50 years. This is not a war that began yesterday or last month. And it is certainly not a war solely against Hezbollah or Lebanese Shia.
Bibi, saboteur
Netanyahu has two major reasons for sabotaging any peace deal:
2. Trump knows Bibi opposes an end to hostilities, and has shut him out of the talks. As a result, the Israeli leader wants to make it as hard as possible to consummate any deal that would let Iran or Hezbollah off the hook.
Trump, as we know, plays fast and loose with reality, promising what he can never deliver. In this case, he regularly pledges that an agreement is imminent. But it never materializes. Israel’s repeated attacks on Beirut (despite a so-called ceasefire)–which led to a retaliatory Iranian missile salvo targeting Israel, and Israeli attacks on Iran–are intended to destroy any possibility of resolving the conflicts.
Netanyahu not only is sabotaging US efforts in this case, he has done so routinely for decades going back to a video he made in 2010, asserting that he could easily manipulate the Americans and that they can be “easily moved.”
He routinely agrees to American peace proposals (under duress) and later ignores them and pursues his own agenda. His inevitable rejectionism provokes yet more regional bloodshed and violence. Like so many historical and would-be dictators preceding him, they all share a malignant narcissism. Millions die on the altar of their self-righteousness.
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As an example, Trump’s team negotiated a ceasefire with Iran in April. The agreement also incorporated Lebanon, by which Hezbollah was to stop firing missiles at northern Israel and Israel was to stop attacking Beirut and other Lebanese territory. Except Israel never observed its end of the bargain. It immediately resumed attacks on southern Lebanon with the excuse that Hezbollah remained active in these villages. However, IDF attacks were indiscriminate, killing hundreds of civilians. Entire villages were blown up with Israeli soldiers celebrating (see Instagram post) their handiwork. The only restraint Israel placed on itself was refraining from attacks on Beirut, which it had pulverized mercilessly until April.
The fictional Lebanese ‘ceasefire’
Global media constantly referred to a “Lebanese ceasefire” that never existed. They accepted the Trump-Netanyahu charade, that stopping attacks against the capital while continuing them in earnest against the south was somehow, a “ceasefire.” This served to give Israel a pass. It could attack what it wanted, kill who it wanted–while still maintaining the fiction of ceasefire. It distracted from the mayhem and made Trump happy.
Hezbollah also continued attacks against IDF invaders in the south, but did not fire at northern Israel as it had done. But finally as images of the devastation filled the media, the Lebanese militia had enough and it resumed rocket fire.
Then Israel decided to resume attacks on Beirut. Once again the media described these new attacks as “retaliation” for Hezbollah attacks. They were not. The cause of the breakdown was not the Lebanese, but the Israelis.
As soon as the IDF attacked Beirut, Iran declared this an impermissible breach of its own ceasefire with the US. It began firing ballistic missiles at Israel, with Israel responding with its own barrage. The latter also launched air attacks on Iranian targets.
Netanyahu has no intention of stopping his attacks in Lebanon, ceasefire or no ceasefire. He said so himself:
He adds that the military will continue to operate in southern Lebanon to “destroy all of [Hezbollah’s] terrorist infrastructure in the security zone, including massive underground facilities in the Beaufort Ridge.”
Israel made a habit of finding Hamas weapons caches and “command centers” in Gaza hospitals, schools, etc. They never offered proof, of course. They make the same claims regarding Hezbollah. They are convenient because they serve to justify Israel’s mayhem. No one stops to think: why shouldn’t Hezbollah have weapons caches inside its own country, which it’s defending against a foreign invader?
Regardless of whether Beaufort was ever occupied by the Lebanese militia, the IDF seizure of this ancient historic site is meant to be yet another humiliation against the Lebanese people, who view it as a national cultural treasure.
The Israeli assaults roused Trump from his slumber, and he announced that both sides had agreed to stop the firing. Netanyahu went on TV boasting of his successes. His statement was replete with lies and distortions.
“…A year ago, we launched a historic preemptive strike against Iran’s intention to destroy us with atomic bombs.”
Israel and its apologists globally have proffered this claim without any credible evidence. Though Iran has never said it intended to destroy Israel with nuclear weapons, Netanyahu himself threatened to do just that to Iran, at no less a spot than Israel’s nuclear reactor in Dimona. The message to Iran and the world was clear. He was ready and willing to obliterate Iran with a weapon that would poison the region.
He offered yet another lie concerning Hezbollah:
He then turned to Hezbollah, saying the terror group had planned to invade the Galilee with thousands of terrorists while also preparing to destroy Israeli cities with 150,000 missiles and rockets.
It’s unlikely Hezbollah has thousands of terrorists capable of invading Israel. But even if it did, it would not do so. Unlike Hamas, whose 10/7 invasion was enabled by its unfettered rule in Gaza, Hezbollah is answerable to the Lebanese people. It is a minority there. As such, the rest of the country would not accept such an incursion. As for destroying Israeli cities with missiles, it is clear that it either is not capable of, or does not wish to do so. So much for Bibi’s mendacity. It’s no surprise that a common Israeli curse against him is “liar, son of a liar” (shakran ben shakran).
He closed with a final defiant flourish, sticking a finger (“politely”) in Trump’s eye:
Israel has every right to self-defense, and we will exercise that right whenever necessary,” he said. “I say this to you, dear citizens of Israel, just as I say it with appreciation and respect in my good conversations with my friend President Trump.”
In other words, Trump is not the boss of me and I will do what I want when I want. And fuck him (politely).
Houthis rejoin the fray
Now a new player has joined the fray. The Houthis, an Iranian ally that has largely stayed out of the fight (since the early weeks when it did attack Red Sea shipping), announced this week that they would close the Red Sea to Israel-bound ship traffic. It is the second most important maritime pathway for oil shipments after the Strait of Hormuz. The Yemeni group threatened that if attacks on Iran continued, it could close the entire passageway to all shipping. This would cut off the Suez Canal, a critical global shipping route. The Houthis reinforced their threat by firing two missiles at Israel on Monday.
If they joined the battle, it would expand the war and make resolving it even more complicated. While that would likely serve Netanyahu’s interests, it would by no means serve Trump’s. He faces bitter consumers at home, confronting the rising cost of a myriad of goods due to the closing of the Strait of Hormuz. Blockaded oil shipments are, of course, the main issue, since it fuels much of the global economy. The US president is under building pressure from Democrats and Republicans to end the war, but has refused to do so despite many proposed agreements, which he himself has endorsed before rejecting them once again.
Israeli spying on US peace negotiators
Israel has shown further impunity by spying on Trump’s key negotiators, who are engaged in peace talks with Iran (Witkoff, Kushner). As a result, the Pentagon intelligence agency has raised the spying threat level to ‘critical‘ regarding Israel. Meaning Israel poses a higher threat than any other national intelligence agency, including our chief rivals, Russia and China. Kushner and Witkoff made the Israeli surveillance easier by using personal cell phones & refusing to use secure communications:
The [Pentagon] report, which incorporated contributions from a number of military intelligence agencies, also details several episodes in recent years. In 2021, Israeli military intelligence officers were caught planting listening devices at D.I.A. headquarters. Last year, officers from Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, were discovered to have tried to plant a listening device in a Secret Service vehicle.
Israel conducted the same operation during the 2015 JCPOA nuclear negotiations with Iran. Because Pres. Obama had frozen Netanyahu out of the process, which the latter had adamantly opposed, the Mossad bugged the hotel rooms of the US negotiators. Israel desperately wanted to know the US and Iranian positions. Presumably, because it would want to sabotage any prospect of a deal that ignored Israeli interests (as defined by Netanyahu). One way it could do so is by activating Aipac to lobby Congress, especially the Republicans, against the deal. Ultimately, this strategy failed and an agreement was signed (which Trump abrogated three years later).
The Shin Bet operation happened during Trump’s 2025 visit to Israel during which he addressed the Knesset. Though this incident has been reported (above), the location and occasion of the spying was not. This new information was confirmed to Tikun Olam by an Israeli security source.
Israeli spying against the US goes as far back as the founding of the State itself. What it could not find out via official sources, it stole. And it has continued stealing ever since.
NGO of warmongering …
FDD: After four months of war, Israel still has targets to hit. The latest IDF raids, in this increasingly fictional ceasefire, smashed Iranian missile-defense systems and a petrochemical plant … (10 June 2026)
link to fdd.org
@Oui: I understand what your purpose was in linking to FDD. But I don’t link to right-wing sites because it improves their site visits & SEO ranking. I suggest summarising the article to which you’re referring or using a screenshot. But pls no right-wing links.
Trump plans to take cut in Arabian Gulf oil reserves by taking Persian wells to compensate damages suffered in war …
Venezuelans are happy to share their oil with us for the benefit of all … MAGA will control the global oil market for national security.
link to cnbc.com
Well beyond the Monroe doctrine … keep the chisels ready for a new face on Mount Rushmore.
Shoulder to shoulder in warm embrace … the rest is kabuki theater. The Western media is owned by far-right media and shows an ever growing gap with public opinion as confirmed in Pew polls. I call it brainwashing and pure propaganda as I witnessed in the Cold War era. The Mockingbird never ended the CIA project, just changed tack.
The White House and members of Trump’s National Security Council are clearly divided. No appetite for diplomacy or compromise … U.S. Congress members are more extreme.
Netanyahu, Trump ’fully coordinated’ amid US attacks on Iran, PM’s office source says
link to timesofisrael.com
Bibi has a single Zionist goal of Eretz Yisrael as he learned from his father Benzion and the “great” revisionist Jabotinsky.
From Jabotinsky’s Articles to Netanyahu: The Legacy of Revisionist Zionism and Likud’s Impact on Israeli Politics
link to me-t.org
Thank you.