Eizenkot Slams U.S.-Iran Deal as a Strategic Failure for Israel

Gadi Eizenkot, chairman of the Yashar party and former IDF chief of staff, issued a sharp statement Monday morning after the United States and Iran finalized a deal. He accused the Israeli government of causing a serious diplomatic and security failure, saying Israel had woken up to an agreement reached far from its interests.

Eizenkot said that nearly three years after the October 7 failure, and despite heavy costs and notable military achievements, Israel was now facing what he called “a bleak outcome of a failed government.” He argued that the government had acted without strategy, political courage, or leadership, and had lost the public’s trust and that of its allies while abandoning Israeli residents. He added that there was “a chasm” between the government’s promises of “total victory” and reality.

He said Israelis had expected a deal that would remove nuclear material, eliminate missile threats, cancel firing formulas, preserve Israel’s freedom of action, and separate the different fronts. Instead, he said, residents of the north had been left exposed for two and a half years and discovered that their security was still vulnerable, while their pleas were again ignored in Jerusalem. Eizenkot promised, “We will not leave them alone.”

He ended by calling for responsible, measured leadership that acts according to Israel’s security and national interests, builds a real strategy for victory, and tells citizens the truth. “Israel must win. Israel will win,” he said. Separately, Blue and White chairman MK Benny Gantz warned that Israel must never accept limits on its freedom of action in Lebanon or a withdrawal that would endanger northern residents, calling the emerging Iran deal a strategic failure that would require years of diplomatic, military, and legal struggle, led only by a broad Zionist government.