Israel and the Cease-Fire

[Celerity]

Will Bibi Netanyahu manage to keep the war going, or will Trump finally appreciate that U.S. interests and Bibi’s are far from identical?

https://prospect.org/2026/04/10/israel-netanyahu-trump-cease-fire-iran-war/


President Donald Trump shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the end of a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, December 29, 2025, in Palm Beach, Florida. Credit: Alex Brandon/AP Photo

President Trump’s hapless efforts to extricate himself and the United States from his failed Iran war may have one salutary piece of collateral damage. There is now a wedge between Trump and one of his prime manipulators: Bibi Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister who prodded Trump into launching the war and recklessly sought to widen it, is now trying to sabotage the fragile cease-fire.

We have to hope that there will not be far more serious collateral damage in the form of increased antisemitism—of the real kind, not the fake version that Trump has been using to eviscerate civil rights enforcement for everyone but Jews. At some point, Trump may well turn on his former close ally and take MAGA with him. The fact that the U.S. delegation to Islamabad this weekend is headed by Vice President JD Vance is a mark of Trump’s desperation. Vance was one of the few senior people in the administration (and the only one whom Trump can’t fire) to express skepticism about the war.

But even before Vance departed for Pakistan, Netanyahu was doing his best to undermine the deal. Netanyahu had not been consulted about the cease-fire, nor was Israel was invited to participate in negotiations. On Wednesday morning, hours after Trump announced the cease-fire, Israel’s military launched over 100 strikes on southern Lebanon, killing more than 300 people, including in Beirut neighborhoods outside of Hezbollah’s traditional domain that had been spared. Israel’s attacks on southern Lebanon have now killed more than 1,800 people, including many civilians, and displaced more than one million from their homes.

Vance tried to claim that suspension of Israel’s attacks on Lebanon was not part of the bare-bones cease-fire agreement, calling it a “misunderstanding” with the Iranians: “I think the Iranians thought that the cease-fire included Lebanon, and it just didn’t, we never made that promise,” Vance told reporters. He was contradicted by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who helped negotiate the terms. Sharif said that Lebanon was explicitly part of the cease-fire agreement.

snip

[Klarkashton]

1. Trump & Bibi are a couple of felons on the run to stay out of jail.

[OC375]

2. It's bigger than both of them now.

[gulliver]

3. U.S. and Israeli interests are not identical, but the overlap is ridiculously huge.

I don't think some of us appreciate the huge cultural and philosophical overlap the United States and Israel share. Israel is a multiracial, multicultural, multi-religious democracy. It is surrounded by a plethora of politically organized regions and countries, most of which can be accurately described as highly misogynist, murderously homophobic, and oppressively religiously intolerant.

Israel, on the other hand, is a, culturally and politically, liberal and progressive oasis. As authentic liberals and progressives, we need far more Israel-like countries and governments in the world, not less. We don't have to agree with everything Israel does or some of its people do, of course. But, it should be obvious to even the most casual observer that Israel is an excellent country with excellent people of all races, creeds, and ethnicities.

There may be a few liberals and progressives who don't see this point of view. I would ask them to think very hard and reconsider, if so. Who is telling you Israel is so bad (if someone is)? Are they racist against any race? Are they ridiculously patriarchal and dismissive of the rights of women? Are they intolerant of other religions? Are they violently anti-gay? If they are, my advice is simple: Dump them and oppose them. They are enemies of liberalism and progressivism. Free yourself from their bad company.

[Violet_Crumble]

4. Israel isn't an excellent country

And I don't think I'm in the minority amongst American Democrats, and definitely not amongst the Australian Left. Here's why:

* There's no such thing as an 'excellent' country. Putting Israel up on a pedestal to worship it from afar does the country no favours.
* When I think about about liberal and progressive oasis's, Israel doesn't come to mind. Nordic countries do, and there's a reason for that apart from the blatantly obvious fact that the Israeli govt has had an extreme RW government for many years, and has been carrying out an illegal occupation in the West Bank and Gaza for many decades.
* Opinion polls of Israelis have consistently shown majority support for Trump, and opposition to Netanyahu isn't opposition to the human rights abuses and indiscriminate attacks on Palestinians and Lebanese, but due to domestic issues. Israelis tend to support military aggression by Israel. Not particularly liberal or progressive.
* An 'excellent' country wouldn't allow settlers from the 'excellent' country to attack and murder Palestinians in the West Bank with impunity. It wouldn't allow them to steal land from Palestinians. Religious nationalism is the exact opposite of progressive or liberal thought.
* Arab Israelis are discriminated against. Do you need some examples? I'm happy to supply them.
* Human rights organisations are targeted by the current 'progressive' Israeli government for criticising Israels treatment of Palestinians.
* Progressive countries don't execute people based on their ethnicity or lack of being an Israeli citizen. Refer to laws being implemented that any Palestinian that kills an Israeli will be hung. It's been written in such a way that it doesn't apply to Israels killing Palestinians.

There's a lot more, but I'm running down my dot point quota. In a minute I'm going to answer yr questions, but first I'm going to point out something and I'm going to draw a broad brush after seeing Americans post on Bluesky and Threads. Americans (not all) tend to have a different idea of what terms like progressive, socialist, liberal, cultural actually mean. I suspect after reading yr post that yr idea of what's progressive and mine are vastly different. You act as though women's rights, religious tolerance, and LGBT rights are all there is to it. And compare it to other countries in the ME. Isn't that a low bar to compare it against? What about equality for all? What about freedom of the media? Universal healthcare? (Israel has that, but most countries do). I don't see any real progressive policies from Netanyahu's govt. He's too busy trying to take away power from the judiciary.

Now for yr questions:

Who is telling you Israel is so bad (if someone is)? Clearly TikTok filled me in. It's not like I did ME studies when I was at uni, and widely read a lot of books. I've still got Alan Dershowitz's 'The Case for Israel' sitting in my bookcase amongst stuff from Benny Morris, Noam Chomsky and Tom Segev.

Are they racist against any race? Can't say I am, but when I was in Japan last year I started to get frustrated with rude Americans and Russians and unfortunately started to judge all of them based on the horrid tourists. That's a nationality thing though, and not a racism thing. (I've bolded the word nationality because Israel is a nation, not a race.)

Are they intolerant of other religions? I'm an atheist. I despise all religions equally.

Are they ridiculously patriarchal and dismissive of the rights of women? If someone is ridiculously patriarchal and dismissive of the rights of women and tells you they're liberal or progressive, they're taking the piss out of you.

Are they violently anti-gay? Uh, no. See above.


Finally, your idea of what's cultural is also a bit off. The US is not culturally close to Israel. It's culturally close to other countries that were ruled by the British and English speaking, like the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand etc. Then there's the countries that at some point were run by the US like the Phillipines, and have picked up cultural things. Israel is culturally closer to Meditteranean countries and parts of Italy than it is to the US.

[gulliver]

5. Some replies...

First, yes there are excellent countries. The United States is obviously one. Some few may chortle or hyperventilate when faced with that obvious fact, but remember, all is relative. Everybody wants to come here.

If we are to take every category of civilization improvement recommended by authentic liberals and authentic progressives seriously (as I assume we both do), then the United States is probably the most excellent country that has ever existed.

Anyone who would tell you otherwise you should greet with skepticism and, for bonus kindness points, pity. You're looking at bad company and can, if you have the strength and patience, try to help them if they are open to help. Often they are deriving their opinion from their mood. It can't be overlooked.

Is Israel an oasis of liberalism and progressivism? Yes, it clearly is. Remember, an oasis is a human-friendly spot surrounded by desert. Take a ruler and go to a map. What is the nearest country to Israel that is better than it in terms of progressive and liberal values? For example, if someone were gay, where is the nearest place from Israel they could feel valued and safe?

I don't really think judging rude Americans and Russians in Japan (as you mentioned) is racism. It really is, to me, a kind of dislike of rude, thoughtless people. There's nothing wrong with disliking them. It's wrong not to dislike them. I'll probably never get to visit Japan, but I would definitely try not to be rude. I'm a big fan of Japan.

Israel isn't perfect. The United States is not perfect. But they're both excellent.

[David__77]

6. Israel is sad example of a state. Truly tragic.

And not just to those who it oppresses also to its own citizens in the final analysis.

[leftstreet]

7. +1

[leftstreet]

8. DURec