{"id":327914,"date":"2026-06-13T05:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T05:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=327914"},"modified":"2026-06-14T07:41:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T07:41:39","slug":"how-a-regional-defence-pact-could-deal-the-final-blow-to-israels-violent-expansionism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=327914","title":{"rendered":"How a regional defence pact could deal the final blow to Israel\u2019s violent expansionism"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Hearst \u2013 Middle East Eye.com June 9, 2026<\/strong><\/h1>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The brief exchange of fire between Iran<\/a> and Israel<\/a> was a truer statement of the balance of power that now exists between these two countries than the many spurious claims by US<\/a> President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about having \u201csmashed\u201d, \u201cdestroyed\u201d or \u201cobliterated\u201d the armed forces of the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n

In firing up to 30 missiles<\/a> towards Israel in retaliation against its renewed bombing of Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Iran broke the model that Israel had imposed on the two other ceasefires in Lebanon<\/a> and Gaza: namely that you cease, and we keep on firing.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, it showed that it would target northern Israel to protect a third country, Lebanon, which is also something of a first.<\/p>\n

In announcing that it would halt fire, Iran\u2019s military command said<\/a> that if Israel resumed its attacks anywhere, including southern Lebanon, \u201cmuch more severe and crushing measures than before will follow\u201d.<\/p>\n

It has taken time for the Islamic Republic to respond to Israel\u2019s campaigns on Gaza<\/a>, Lebanon and itself as one war – which is what it is – but at last, it is being forced to do so.<\/p>\n

No one else is; least of all the Lebanese government<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If Iran and Hezbollah between them force even a partial pullback of Israeli troops in Lebanon, they will have been more effective at ensuring the return of its own citizens to their homes than Lebanon\u2019s president.<\/p>\n

As Amal Saad, a scholar on Hezbollah, wrote<\/a> in these pages, the ceasefire agreement signed by Lebanese representatives with Israel and the US belongs to a category of political submission with little or no precedent.<\/p>\n

\u201cLebanon, a state under attack,\u00a0co-signs\u00a0<\/a>a document that conditions a ceasefire not on the withdrawal of the occupying power from its territory, but on the withdrawal of its own citizens from their land,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

The ceasefire was not conditional on an Israeli withdrawal, a prisoner release, or a return of the population, but on Hezbollah withdrawing from the south.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s little wonder, then, that Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz have been crowing that they had won on all fronts.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu said that Israel had proved it could fight a war on three fronts simultaneously, and that its forces should advance to a line that occupied 70 percent of Gaza<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Katz committed himself<\/a> to the mass ethnic cleansing of the enclave: large-scale \u201cvoluntary migration\u201d that Israel would implement \u201cat the proper time and in the proper manner\u201d.<\/p>\n

Katz has also said that the Israeli army is using the same tactics<\/a> in Lebanon as it did in Gaza, where entire cities were reduced to rubble.<\/p>\n

Both Netanyahu and Katz speak without any apparent fear of incriminating themselves in the genocide<\/a> case that is still before the International Court of Justice.<\/p>\n

Stubborn resistance<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Iran\u2019s display of defiance puts a spoke in these wheels. It has also substantially weakened Netanyahu\u2019s relationship with Trump.<\/p>\n

Israeli jets were on the runway on Monday, ready to resume full-scale war on Iran, according to multiple reports<\/a>, when Trump called Netanyahu and told him to stop.<\/p>\n

Trump was true to his word. Asked in an interview with The Financial Times <\/a>whether he could restrain the Israeli prime minister, Trump replied: \u201cHe won\u2019t have any choice. I call the shots. I call all the shots. He doesn\u2019t call the shots.\u201d<\/p>\n

The war on Iran<\/a> was the brainchild of these two men alone, based on false Mossad intelligence that the Islamic Republic was weaker than it proved to be.\u00a0Iran\u2019s stubborn resistance to being defeated, alongside its ability to continually rebuild its missile and drone forces, is now imposing substantial strains on this alliance.<\/p>\n

Both leaders face elections. Both are under attack domestically for having offshored, and thus lost control of, the war they jointly started.<\/p>\n

Israeli journalist Ben Caspit complained in Ma\u2019ariv that\u00a0national security in Israel had been \u201cprivatised\u201d<\/a> and handed over to Trump, to the extent that military decisions needed approval from Washington.<\/p>\n

His colleague, Avi Ashkenazi, said that \u201cIsrael must not accept the American dictate to sit still and refrain from responding\u201d, noting that this could risk Israel\u2019s very existence.<\/p>\n

On Monday night, Netanyahu had to content himself with a truculent statement<\/a> that he would halt attacks on Iran \u201cfor now\u201d.<\/p>\n

Trump, too, suffered a major setback<\/a> last week when the House of Representatives voted \u201cto remove all US forces from hostilities against the Islamic Republic of Iran\u201d. The resolution, which has no force of law, was supported by four Republicans who defected to vote with the Democrats.<\/p>\n

Trump railed on Truth Social: \u201cYesterday, in a meaningless vote, the House voted, 4 bad Republicans and all of the Dumocrats, to limit my War Powers, right in the middle of my final negotiations to end the War with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Who would do such an unpatriotic thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it is clear that the antiwar mood is spreading in Republican ranks – and Trump knows this is a threat.<\/p>\n

Diverging agendas<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It is clearer, too, that the US and Israeli agendas on Iran now diverge. Trump evidently does not believe that either a resumption of the war or the continuation of the Hormuz blockade will bring about an end to the conflict.<\/p>\n

His insistence that negotiations are continuing, and that a memorandum of understanding on reopening the Strait of Hormuz is within reach, reflects the belief that negotiations with Iran are the only way for the US armada to stand down.<\/p>\n

Trump started the war with dreams of a quick victory. He now has to end it as fast as he can.<\/p>\n

For Netanyahu, a US peace deal with Iran – with the Islamic Republic still in place – would mark the end of that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to expand Israel\u2019s borders and impose itself as the region\u2019s new hegemon.<\/p>\n

That window of opportunity started in Trump\u2019s first term, when he appointed a settler advocate as an ambassador<\/a>, and recognised Israel\u2019s annexation<\/a> of the Golan Heights and Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.<\/p>\n

There was no quid pro quo, no commitments Israel had to give about a Palestinian<\/a> state. These were gifts on a silver platter.<\/p>\n