Israeli politicians from across the ideological spectrum said on Tuesday that the apparent cease-fire between Iran and Israel was a strategic success that now requires action in Gaza, and may portend fresh challenges vis-à-vis the Islamic Republic.
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, who belongs to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party, lauded the “historic achievements” made against Iran.
Netanyahu, “in historic cooperation with U.S. President Donald Trump, kept his promise to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and ensured the eternity of Israel,” Karhi wrote on X.
“The mission in Gaza is not yet complete, and this is the main mission now: eliminating Hamas, returning the hostages and advancing the emigration plan [for Gazans wishing to leave the Strip],” Karhi wrote.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionism Party who has in the past challenged decisions by Netanyahu to pause the fighting against Hamas in Gaza, tweeted on Tuesday: “Now full force into Gaza, finish the job: Destroy Hamas and retrieve our hostages and ensure, Hashem willing, many years of security and growth from a position of force for the People of Israel.”
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, chairman of the Yesh Atid Party, also referenced the coastal enclave in reacting to the cease-fire with Iran. “And now Gaza. It’s time to finish things there, too. Return the hostages, end the war. Israel needs to start rebuilding.”
Ending the war in Gaza was also the demand from Yair Golan, the leader of the far-left Democratic opposition party.
“The campaign against Iran has concluded with a clear security achievement,” Golan tweeted, adding, “And this is the moment to complete the mission: to bring back all the hostages, end the war in Gaza.”
The terms of the cease-fire “must be carefully examined” as to whether “it prevents Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons,” and also the conditions for reapplying sanctions, “including the resumption of hostilities,” Golan added.
Golan said that the result vis-à-vis Iran would not have been possible “if Israel were not a democratic, strong and united state.”
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He also criticized the Netanyahu government’s judicial reform effort, writing that it is time to “permanently halt the regime coup that threatens to make Israel weak, divided and vulnerable.”
Avigdor Liberman, leader of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu opposition party, criticized the circumstances surrounding the cease-fire that Trump announced shortly before an Iranian missile killed four people in Beersheva.
“Against the backdrop of the incredible military achievements of the IDF and the Mossad in the war against Iran, the final chord is particularly jarring and bitter,” wrote Liberman, referencing the tragedy in Beersheva.
“Instead of unconditional surrender, the world has entered into difficult and tedious negotiations, when the ayatollah regime has no intention of giving up—not on uranium enrichment on Iranian soil, not on the production and equipping of ballistic missiles, nor on supporting and financing terrorism in the region and around the world,” he added.
A cease-fire “without a clear and unambiguous agreement will certainly lead us to another war in two to three years, and under much worse conditions,” Liberman said.
