While Iran and the United States of America (USA) reached a ceasefire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems to have cut a sorry figure back home, following the US lead on the cessation of the West Asia war, even as it had led the strikes against Tehran to begin with.
Netanyahu came under fire on the domestic front. The main opposition leader of Israel, Yair Lapid, on Wednesday targeted PM Netanyahu in the wake of the Iran-US cessation of war. “There has never been such a diplomatic disaster in all our history,” Lapid took to X to express his angst, adding, “Israel wasn’t even at the table when decisions were made concerning the core of our national security.”
לא היה אסון מדיני כזה בכל תולדותינו. ישראל לא היתה אפילו ליד השולחן כשנעשו החלטות הנוגעות לליבת הבטחון הלאומי שלנו.
הצבא ביצע את כל מה שביקשו ממנו, הציבור הציג חוסן מדהים, אבל נתניהו נכשל מדינית, נכשל איסטרטגית, לא עמד באף אחת מהמטרות שהוא בעצמו הציב.
ייקח לנו שנים לתקן את…
— יאיר לפיד – Yair Lapid (@yairlapid) April 8, 2026
“The military carried out everything it was asked of it, the public showed remarkable resilience, but Netanyahu failed politically, failed strategically, and didn’t meet a single one of the goals that he himself set,” Lapid added.
“It will take us years to repair the diplomatic and strategic damage that Netanyahu caused due to arrogance, negligence, and a lack of strategic planning.” Lapid ended his post promising more details later.
Earlier, US President Donald Trump hailed the two-week cessation of hostilities with Iran as a turning point. The ceasefire came amid heightened risk of an all-out catastrophe not just for the region, but for the wider world, as both parties had upped the ante, both verbal and war-wise.
The cornerstone of the ceasefire remained the Strait of Hormuz passage. While Trump said it agreed to a ceasefire if Iran was amenable to “COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz”, Iran too returned the favour.
“Considering the request by the U.S. for negotiations based on its 15-point proposal, as well as the announcement by POTUS about acceptance of the general framework of Iran’s 10-point proposal as a basis for negotiations, I hereby declare on behalf of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council: If attacks against Iran are halted, our Powerful Armed Forces will cease their defensive operations. For a period of two weeks, safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be possible via coordination with Iran’s Armed Forces and with due consideration of technical limitations,” Iran Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi wrote on X.