Former prime minister Ehud Barak said in an interview with Calcalist’s Roy Bergman at the newspaper’s Financial Future conference that the agreement between the United States and Iran was, from Israel’s perspective, “bad” and “very bad.” He argued that Israel failed to achieve any of its goals, “not in Iran, not against Hezbollah and not against Hamas,” and said the outcome was paradoxical because Iran emerged strengthened after absorbing heavy blows, while Israel emerged weakened.
Barak said the core problem was a deep misunderstanding of what victory means for different actors. In his view, Israel and the United States need a clear, visible result, while Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah can regard mere survival as victory. He also accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of a form of “willful blindness” about how wars should be conducted, saying war must have achievable goals, political will, and a realistic path from battlefield gains to durable diplomatic results.
He said the ongoing campaigns suffer from diminishing returns and eventually stagnation, and argued that Netanyahu has a conflict of interest because of the October 7 war, a future state commission of inquiry, and his own legal troubles. Barak also said U.S. President Donald Trump launched a war without fully understanding the energy-market consequences, though he added that Trump learns quickly and would “be fine.”
Barak rejected the idea of creating three security belts in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, saying Israel has no strategic, economic or diplomatic justification for such a policy. He said defeating Hezbollah would require occupying all of Lebanon, which is impossible, and argued that replacing Hamas in Gaza requires a legitimate alternative force recognized by international law and regional states.
On Lebanon, Barak said there is a real opportunity if the country’s president, backed by France, Saudi Arabia, the United States and others, tries to curb Hezbollah, but he said Netanyahu’s demand that Hezbollah first disarm makes progress impossible. He also warned that Israel’s regional standing has eroded and said a promised increase of 350 billion shekels in defense spending over the next decade would choke the economy if current defense outlays of 8 to 9 percent of GDP are maintained.
