Israel Faces Déjà Vu as Trump-Era Iran Deal Revives Old Fears
A Hebrew commentary says the current Iran nuclear talks are unsettlingly similar to the 2014 debate that found Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a cabinet meeting, only this time Israel’s embarrassment is greater because Donald Trump is back in the White House. The article recalls that in July 2014, Netanyahu’s cabinet rejected the idea of accepting the emerging deal and insisted Israel was not a party to it, while Jerusalem also turned down American incentives meant to keep Netanyahu from opposing it, including a planned speech against the agreement in Congress.
Netanyahu’s 2014 warning, that world powers were making a “historical mistake” by striking a deal with what he called the main financer and operator of global terrorism, is presented as nearly identical to his stance now, except that Trump makes the political situation different. The piece says Trump can both sharply rebuke Netanyahu and pressure President Isaac Herzog over a potential pardon for the prime minister, which explains why the current details are so unlike the earlier dispute.
The article says Israel’s hard line against the 2015 deal helped convince Trump to withdraw from it three years later. Now, in 2026, Iran and the United States are said to be closing in on a peace agreement, with the cabinet meeting moved to a bunker over fears of an Iranian ballistic missile strike. The terms are still unclear, but the report says early signals are troubling for Israel: the uranium will not be removed from Iran but diluted there under American supervision, Iran will still be allowed to enrich uranium on its own soil at a low level, likely 3.67 percent, and Trump said the cap would be “forever.”
That last point may be the only positive for Netanyahu to cling to, even though the 2015 accord froze enrichment for 15 years. The article says the new deal, like the old one, is expected to channel “hundreds of billions of dollars” into Iran’s “terror and war machine,” but now comes after the Israeli army has struck Iran three times this year. It also says the embarrassment extends to Lebanon, where Israel faces questions about whether Trump will press it to withdraw from the security zone and stop attacks there, after he reportedly said so on Truth Social. The commentary concludes that Israel’s strategy of avoiding a deal, threatening force, then using force, has collapsed, along with the gap between Trump’s and Netanyahu’s promises and reality.
