‘Greatest strategic failure’: Israeli politicians slam Netanyahu over US-Iran MoU

Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under fire from opposition politicians and members of his own coalition following the announcement of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Iran and the United States.

“Israeli citizens are waking up to an agreement between the United States and Iran made over Israel's head,” Yair Golan, head of Israel’s Democrats Party, said on the social media platform X.

“This is the culmination of long years of failure,” he added, slamming Netanyahu for selling Israeli settlers “a false image of security.”

“Netanyahu is the man who, for years, sold the public a false image of ‘Mr. Security,’ and in reality became the father of Israel's greatest strategic failure in its history,” he said.

“The one who promised ‘total victory’ ends his tenure with Israel's enemies stronger, Israel weaker, and the deterrence built with the blood of our fighters eroding before our very eyes,” Golan said.

“Replacing him [Netanyahu] is not just a political necessity -- it is an existential security imperative.”

On Sunday, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose country mediated between Iran and the US, announced that Tehran and Washington reached an agreement following intensive negotiations, with both sides declaring an immediate and permanent end to military operations across all fronts, including in Lebanon.

The MoU will be signed on Friday in Switzerland, according to Iranian and American officials. 

Benny Gantz, head of Israel’s Blue and White party, called the US-Iran deal a “strategic failure” that will have long-term consequences for the occupying regime.

“The emerging agreement with Iran appears to be a strategic failure that will require Israel to engage in diplomatic, military, and legal struggles in the coming years,” Gantz, a former minister of military affairs, said on X.

Israel’s so-called “national security” minister Itamar Ben-Gvir claimed that the US-Iran agreement does not bind Israel.

“Israel is not subject to the United States, and we are an independent and sovereign nation,” he claimed on X. “We love the United States and are grateful to President Trump. And at the same time, the State of Israel is not a banana republic.”

“We are not partners in this agreement that does not concern us for our security, and it does not bind us in any way,” Ben-Gvir said. “We must not compromise on anything less than the dismantling of Hezbollah; we must not withdraw from any territory that our fighters have conquered.”

Iran says end of Israeli war on Lebanon ‘inseparable’ part of understanding with US

Iran says termination of the Israeli war on Lebanon is an “inseparable” part of an agreement between Tehran and Washington that brings a permanent end to the illegal US-Israeli aggression against the Islamic Republic.

The regime's finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, also denounced the MoU as “bad for Israel.”

“The joint campaign had many achievements in weakening Iran, and they will not go to waste,” Smotrich claimed in a post on X.

“We will have to continue the campaign to topple the regime ourselves and in creative ways, and ensure that Iran will never have nuclear weapons,” he claimed.

The US and Israel started a fresh round of aerial aggression on Iran on February 28, some eight months after they carried out unprovoked attacks on the country.

Iran began to swiftly retaliate against the strikes by launching barrages of missiles and drone attacks on the Israeli-occupied territories as well as on US bases and interests in regional countries.

On April 8, forty days into the war, a Pakistan-brokered temporary ceasefire between Iran and the US took effect and was later extended unilaterally by Washington. Months of indirect talks led to the newly-announced MoU, which is aimed at permanently ending the war on all fronts. 

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