Israeli Cabinet Weighs Response to Iran, Lebanon Link After U.S. Pressure

After Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, U.S. President Donald Trump and Iran all said an agreement had been reached, Israel’s assessment overnight Sunday to Monday was that the Islamic Republic had chosen to “close the event” and avoid attacking Israel. Israeli officials said the decision followed heavy pressure from the Americans and mediators.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Trump that linking the different fronts was “not acceptable” and that Israel would “not agree to any Iranian dictates in Lebanon.” Senior Israeli officials said Netanyahu was standing firm against such demands, and that Israel would “stand strong” on Lebanon even if that led to a clash with Washington.

At an evening cabinet meeting, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich led the push for a forceful response to any Iranian fire by striking in Lebanon rather than in Iran. His argument was that Iran was “Trump’s,” meaning Israel should leave the agreement arena to Washington and avoid being blamed for wrecking it, while still preserving its right to criticize the deal. He said Israel should not strike Iran if attacked from there, but should respond in Lebanon to reject efforts to merge the fronts.

Smotrich said Israel should warn the roughly 400,000 Shiite residents of the Beqaa Valley to evacuate automatically if Iran fires at Israel, then have the IDF hit dozens of targets there within an hour, repeating the pattern until Hezbollah pressures Iran to stop. He described Lebanon strikes as easier, cheaper and quicker, saying, “five minutes of flight instead of four hours,” and called each bomb “two for the price of one,” both a message to Iran and a blow to Hezbollah. Several security chiefs supported him, officials said, while ministers including Eli Cohen, Gila Gamliel, Orit Strock, Miri Regev and Itamar Ben Gvir argued for strong retaliation, with Netanyahu expected to avoid steps that could rupture ties with Trump.