Israel went to war with Iran, but Netanyahu may be the loser

The headline strapped across the front page of the Israeli news site Haaretz on Tuesday summed up the feelings of many: “The Iran Fiasco Is Netanyahu’s Biggest Failure Since October 7”.

After three and a half months of a stuttering war with Iran, Israel’s foremost ally, the United States, has brokered an interim agreement without, it appears, any input from Israel.

Instead, the Iranian state, which Israel’s politicians have for decades cast as an existential threat , is still standing, and, through its control over the Strait of Hormuz, arguably more powerful than before.

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

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

Gadi Eisenkot, a centrist who is one of the favourites to oust Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in elections later this year, was unsparing in his criticism of the Israeli leader and the US-Iran deal.

Eisenkot blasted what he described as “the dismal outcome of a failed government”, pointing to what he characterised as the “vast gulf” between Netanyahu’s “empty promises of total victory” and the outline of what the agreement between the US and Iran will stipulate.

Far-right members of Netanyahu’s coalition government – namely, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich – have been typically uncompromising , with a possible eye on the elections. “We must not act according to the agreements between Trump and [Mojtaba] Khamenei,” Ben-Gvir said in reference to the US and Israeli leaders, while Smotrich called it a “bad deal”.