The ceasefire stopped the Israeli military campaign much sooner than Israel wanted, and left Netanyahu’s government with no choice but to go along.
Even as Israelis were worried that the U.S. deal fell far short of Israel’s requirements, few publicly criticized President Donald Trump, who is broadly popular here.
Zvika Foghel, a far-right lawmaker in Netanyahu’s governing coalition and chair of the Knesset National Security Committee, offered a rare critique.
“Donald, you came out a duck,” he said in a morning social media post, using Hebrew slang for looking weak. He later deleted it.
Mote Levi, 65, who works in a convenience shop a few blocks from the beach in Tel Aviv, said the war was “a waste of time,” adding: “It’s more damage for Israel. Nothing was bookended. Nothing was resolved.”
Asked how he felt about Netanyahu, Levi said, “Netanyahu is Trump’s bitch.”
Israel depends significantly on Washington for its defense and just as importantly, Netanyahu needs his relationship with Trump to help buoy him in elections expected to take place in October.
“I’m still trying to make sense of it,” a veteran right-wing political operative said of the ceasefire, granted anonymity to speak candidly about the political fallout. “The right will feel robbed of an all-out victory, and the Bibi-right will spin it as it is. And the left will say Bibi failed. But in all honesty, I’m not sure they can say they would have done any better.”
While Trump predicted early Wednesday that the ceasefire would bring “the Golden Age of the Middle East,” Israel is worried the Pakistan-mediated pause to negotiate a broader ceasefire will only allow Iran to regroup.
“The ceasefire with Iran gives the ayatollah regime a timeout and an opportunity to reorganize,” Avigdor Lieberman, a former defense minister and head of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party, said in a statement. Yisrael Beiteinu positions itself as a hard-line alternative to Netanyahu’s government.
Should the full agreement not address Israel’s concerns about uranium enrichment, ballistic missile production and support for terrorism in the region, “we will have to return to another campaign under more difficult conditions and pay a heavier price,” Lieberman said.
Netanyahu first addressed the deal publicly late Wednesday after the Passover holiday ended. He said the U.S. fully coordinated with Israel and that while Iran is “weaker than ever,” Israel’s objectives are not yet fully met.
“We still have objectives to complete — and we will achieve them either by agreement or by renewing the fighting,” he said in a video message. “Our finger is on the trigger.”
He touted the campaign’s accomplishments, including crippling Iran’s missile production, damaging its nuclear program, destroying key weapons and industrial infrastructure, and hitting regime military assets. He said Israel also dealt a significant blow to Iran’s leadership, including the death of the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Karen Amouyal, 27, who works for an advocacy organization that promotes Israel’s interests abroad, said she understands Trump was under a lot of pressure to end the war but felt the fighting fell short of what the U.S. and Israel said would be accomplished.
“It’s just going to delay what we are meant to be doing. I just feel like we are going to have to go through another war, whether it’s another few months or another year,” she said.
She added: “We were promised that the outcome of this war was going to be a regime change, and no uranium, no nuclear capabilities, we haven’t met those objectives. Obviously I am excited to breathe, but it feels like the last six weeks have been for nothing.”
Shana Tibi, 26, was sitting with Amouyal on a bench near the beach a few blocks away from where she lost her apartment last year when Israel and Iran fought the 12-day war. She doesn’t want the cycle to keep repeating.
“I want us to finish, I don’t want us to have another war. Even if it’s hard, for me it’s important to continue.”
Israel and Iran continued to trade fire in the early morning as the ceasefire was taking effect, with several rounds of sirens from 1:30 a.m. to 3:30 a.m. before the fighting stopped.
The Israeli military said Wednesday it had carried out a last wave of strikes in Iran overnight aimed at Tehran’s missiles and launchers, and is abiding by the ceasefire as directed by Israel’s government.
While Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Tuesday that Lebanon would be included in the ceasefire, Netanyahu’s office said soon after that it would not be. Israel’s military said Wednesday it also had conducted its largest round of strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon since the current round began.
Lebanon’s economy minister told CNBC on Wednesday that Beirut is seeking clarity from Pakistan about its status in the ceasefire. If Israel is able to continue striking in Lebanon, Netanyahu can claim it as a victory with the Israeli public. Trump said later Wednesday that Lebanon was not included in the deal.
“This is a major piece. If Lebanon had been included in the ceasefire, it would have been a major disappointment,” said a former senior Israeli official, granted anonymity to speak about Israeli strategy.
But that concession to Israel could now risk upending the ceasefire altogether, as Iranian state media reported Tehran was closing the Strait of Hormuz again in response to Israeli attacks on Lebanon. The Trump administration said those reports were incorrect.
It is now up to Israel and the U.S. to show the world that Iran has been significantly weakened, and to ensure Iran agrees to a deal that addresses Washington’s and Israel’s concerns about Iran’s nuclear program and other issues, the former senior official said.
One sign will be who attends the funeral of the late Khamenei, which could give a sense of the role Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps is playing. It was postponed amid the war, but a new date has not yet been set.
“We’re looking to see if Mojtaba appears at his father’s funeral,” the former senior official said, referencing the new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei. If he isn’t, “that will be a signal to the Iranian people that the IRGC are running the show.”
Despite the anxiety surrounding the ceasefire, the mood in Tel Aviv was lighter than it has been in recent weeks. Families and congregations gathered to celebrate the last day of Passover, clapping and singing during religious services and hosting barbecues to mark the end of the holiday.
“I’m trying to get used to it,” said Natalie, 48, a pastry chef visiting Tel Aviv from Israel’s north where Israel and Hezbollah are still trading fire. “It’s hard to believe I can sit at the beach and not be afraid of an alarm coming, that I can stay until the evening and not worry about rushing home.”
Group chats lit up with suggestions about going out this weekend without the threat of Iranian fire, and local governments began to make plans to reopen schools that have been closed since the war began in late February.
Still, there is an underlying anxiety among many about how long the respite will last.
“When the last war ended, we all knew that another war was going to come,” said Amouyal, who works for the Israel advocacy organization. “And now it just feels the same.”