Israel opposition leaders pick holes in US-Israeli truce, lambast Netanyahu
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Israel opposition leader Yair Lapid (file photo)
No sooner did the US and Iran agreed to a ceasefire than Israel's opposition leaders came out lambasting Prime Minister Netanyahu for failing to achieve the war's objectives.
The first reported reaction of the Israeli PM to the ceasefire was welcoming it, but clarifying that the deal does not cover the conflict with Lebanon, implying that he would still continue pounding Lebanon with bombs as part of attacks on the militias of Hezbollah, reported London-based Shar Al-Awsat.
"There has never been a political disaster like this in our entire history. Israel was not even close to the table when decisions were made concerning the core of our national security," the country's main opposition leader Yair Lapid wrote on X on Wednesday.
"The army carried out everything that was asked of it, and the public showed remarkable resilience, but Netanyahu failed politically, failed strategically, and did not achieve any of the goals he himself set."
The ceasefire between the US and Iran came into effect after several hiccups in the process and in an 11th-hour bid to avert all-out destruction of Iran threatened by US President Donald Trump.
Netanyahu had declared the elimination or at least severe degradation of Iran's nuclear program as a central goal of the war, describing it as an "existential threat" to Israel.
He also called for the defusing of Iran's ballistic missile capabilities, the weakening or potentially changing the regime in Tehran and the curbing of Tehran's regional influence by targeting its network of allied groups.
Lapid said, "It will take us years to repair the political and strategic damage that Netanyahu caused due to arrogance, negligence, and lack of strategic planning”.
Another opposition leader and the head of the left-wing Democrats party, Yair Golan, called the ceasefire a "strategic failure" by Netanyahu.
"He promised a historic victory and security for generations, and in practice, we got one of the most severe strategic failures Israel has ever known," Golan said on X.
"It's a total failure that endangers Israel's security for years to come."
Member of parliament and opposition figure Avigdor Liberman also was critical of the truce, because it gave the Iranian regime "an opportunity to regroup".
"Any agreement with Iran that does not include renouncing the destruction of Israel, uranium enrichment, the production of ballistic missiles, and support for terrorist organizations in the region means that we will have to return to another campaign under more difficult conditions and pay a heavier price," Liberman said on X.