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Israeli opposition leader slams Netanyahu for ‘lies sold’ to US

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by Ryan Mancini - 04/08/26 2:51 PM ET

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by Ryan Mancini - 04/08/26 2:51 PM ET

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Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid on Wednesday slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the “lies sold” to the U.S. amid the two countries’ conflict with Iran.

The Yesh Atid party member accused Netanyahu of leading Israel to “a strategic collapse,” Yapid wrote in a post on the social platform X, translated from Hebrew.

“There was here a disgraceful combination of arrogance, irresponsibility, negligent staff work [and] lies sold to the Americans that damaged the trust between the countries,” he said. “A military success that turned into a diplomatic disaster.”

Lapid added that Israel had no “influence whatsoever” over the two-week ceasefire deal agreed to by the U.S. and Iran Tuesday night. He accused the prime minister of turning Israel into a “protectorate state that receives instructions over the phone on matters concerning the core of our national security.”

Israel agreed to the deal reached between the U.S. and Iran just a few hours before an 8 p.m. EDT deadline on Tuesday. Iran’s 10-point peace plan included having Israel cease its military invasion of Lebanon.

“Israel also supports the US effort to ensure that Iran no longer poses a nuclear, missile and terror threat to America, Israel, Iran’s Arab neighbors and the world,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. “The United States has told Israel that it is committed to achieving these goals, shared by the US, Israel and Israel’s regional allies, in the upcoming negotiations.”

The opposition leader on Tuesday criticized the ceasefire deal as a “political disaster.” He praised the military operation’s execution but said that Netanyahu “failed politically” and “strategically.”

“It will take us years to repair the political and strategic damage that Netanyahu wrought due to arrogance, negligence, and a lack of strategic planning,” Lapid wrote in a separate X post.

Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz Wednesday afternoon after briefly reopening it following the deal. Iranian state media reported that the strait was closed again because of the ongoing Israeli Defense Force strikes on Lebanon. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on X that the U.S. must choose between a “ceasefire or continued war via Israel. It cannot have both.”

Other nations in the region halted their attacks on Lebanon, but Israel continued its bombardment, launching a barrage of attacks on 100 sites in 10 minutes on Wednesday.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who helped mediate between the U.S. and Iran, said Lebanon was part of the ceasefire deal, contradicting Netanyahu’s office’s statement that the ceasefire does not apply to Lebanon.

Israeli strikes on Lebanon amid its war with Hezbollah have killed over 1,500 people, according to Amnesty International.

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