Jun 22, 2026 · 49 min · 13 segments
President Donald Trump’s deal with Iran is seen as a total capitulation to the Islamic Republic, and most of all in Israel, which fought alongside the Americans. Brian speaks with Eylon Levy, former…
Eylon LevyGuest
Brian LilleyHost
Danny CitrinowiczGuest
Joining us from Tel Aviv to try and break this down, talk about it is Eylon Levy.
He is a former spokesperson for the Israeli government and keen political observer.
So, Eylon, between, uh, Donald Trump's words that he has to keep Netanyahu sane, uh, that Israel will do whatever he tells them, JD Vance essentially saying, uh, "Look, you're ungrateful.
Why, you know, a- a- and you wouldn't exist without us," how, how is this all being received in Israel today?
Look, we need, we need to understand what the American administration is doing now because the president and the vice president are not armchair commentators.
He concluded that he didn't want to open, uh, to force the Strait of Hormuz open using military action, and therefore he was going to pay the Iranians to open it.
I mean, that is the meaning of unfreezing, uh, assets, allowing them to sell oil, allowing them to charge a toll on the Strait of Hormuz.
It is an obstacle in the path of a grand bargain with the Islamic Republic of Iran because he wants this problem to go away, definitely ahead of the midterms.
And that means that whereas throughout the war, the Israeli and American interests were completely intertwined, uh, to the level that you had American jets refueling Israeli planes over the skies of Tehran, they've become undone.
America has a lot more risk tolerance for the Islamic Republic of Iran than Israel, which is literally on the border of Lebanon, uh, southern Lebanon controlled by an Iranian proxy army, Hezbollah, much more skeptical of the Iranian regime's intentions, by the way, as are many in the administration who we haven't heard from exactly supporting this deal.
Uh, and so it does look like Donald Trump is now trying to publicly put pressure on Netanyahu to wrap up, uh, what's going on in Lebanon so that it doesn't get in the way of the grand rapprochement he's trying to achieve with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
You've got, uh, op-eds in Israeli publications owned by prominent Trump donors denouncing the deal.
Cl- clearly there's a lot of Israeli s- uh, public that is upset with this, although I did note that, uh, Amir Tirbon in, uh, Haaretz is, um, saying, "Well, here's what we have to understand about Trump," and almost defending him.
No, pretty much everyone in Israel understands that this deal is a disaster, not only for Israel, but for the Middle East and frankly for the United States, and that's because this is not a deal to end Iran's nuclear program.
It is a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz while giving away America's leverage to end the nuclear program.
What are the Americans getting? A promise to negotiate an end to the nuclear program.
Um, this is seen in Israel as it is by many of the president's critics in Congress As a capitulation to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
So there is a lot of anger and frustration in Israel, uh, which is explained really by the fact that the United States and Israel have been such close allies.
Israelis are in such awe of the really brave steps that this administration took to take on the Islamic Republic of Iran, both Operation Midnight Hammer and Operation Epic Fury.
Joining us from Tel Aviv to try and break this down, talk about it is Eylon Levy.
He is a former spokesperson for the Israeli government and keen political observer.
So, Eylon, between, uh, Donald Trump's words that he has to keep Netanyahu sane, uh, that Israel will do whatever he tells them, JD Vance essentially saying, uh, "Look, you're ungrateful.
Why, you know, a- a- and you wouldn't exist without us," how, how is this all being received in Israel today?
Look, we need, we need to understand what the American administration is doing now because the president and the vice president are not armchair commentators.
He concluded that he didn't want to open, uh, to force the Strait of Hormuz open using military action, and therefore he was going to pay the Iranians to open it.
I mean, that is the meaning of unfreezing, uh, assets, allowing them to sell oil, allowing them to charge a toll on the Strait of Hormuz.
It is an obstacle in the path of a grand bargain with the Islamic Republic of Iran because he wants this problem to go away, definitely ahead of the midterms.
And that means that whereas throughout the war, the Israeli and American interests were completely intertwined, uh, to the level that you had American jets refueling Israeli planes over the skies of Tehran, they've become undone.
America has a lot more risk tolerance for the Islamic Republic of Iran than Israel, which is literally on the border of Lebanon, uh, southern Lebanon controlled by an Iranian proxy army, Hezbollah, much more skeptical of the Iranian regime's intentions, by the way, as are many in the administration who we haven't heard from exactly supporting this deal.
Uh, and so it does look like Donald Trump is now trying to publicly put pressure on Netanyahu to wrap up, uh, what's going on in Lebanon so that it doesn't get in the way of the grand rapprochement he's trying to achieve with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
You've got, uh, op-eds in Israeli publications owned by prominent Trump donors denouncing the deal.
Cl- clearly there's a lot of Israeli s- uh, public that is upset with this, although I did note that, uh, Amir Tirbon in, uh, Haaretz is, um, saying, "Well, here's what we have to understand about Trump," and almost defending him.
No, pretty much everyone in Israel understands that this deal is a disaster, not only for Israel, but for the Middle East and frankly for the United States, and that's because this is not a deal to end Iran's nuclear program.
It is a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz while giving away America's leverage to end the nuclear program.
What are the Americans getting? A promise to negotiate an end to the nuclear program.
Um, this is seen in Israel as it is by many of the president's critics in Congress As a capitulation to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
So there is a lot of anger and frustration in Israel, uh, which is explained really by the fact that the United States and Israel have been such close allies.
Israelis are in such awe of the really brave steps that this administration took to take on the Islamic Republic of Iran, both Operation Midnight Hammer and Operation Epic Fury.
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