Netanyahu Sabotaging Trump's Iran Talks w/ Matt Gaetz

Ajouté : 2026-06-08

[00:00:03]Welcome back. What is a ceasefire?

[00:00:07]President Trump offered this definition.

[00:00:09]>> How do you define ceasefire?

[00:00:12]>> Uh, pretty much the way it is. It's a different part of the world. You know, I'd say in that part of the world, ceasefire is when you're shooting in a more moderate manner.

[00:00:20]>> It does seem to take the cease part out of ceasefire. The modern ceasefire in Lebanon is more of a continue fire than a ceasefire. Here's President Trump providing an inside look at his efforts to stop the killing in Lebanon.

[00:00:35]>> Lebanon's been under attack for so many years, and always like an underdog.

[00:00:40]And it would be really nice if it could end. And I spoke to Bibi Netanyahu about that.

[00:00:45]And I speak to them about it. And I actually spoke to Hezbollah about it.

[00:00:50]And I think progress is made. It's been going on for a long time, you know, when you look at that for years and years, 48 years.

[00:00:58]I say, "Well, let's get this settled.

[00:00:59]How long has it been going on?" 48 years. I said, "That's a long time."

[00:01:04]Not that easy.

[00:01:05]>> We admire President Trump's efforts to settle this. He's exactly right about that. No one's really winning anything in Lebanon. Yet, Israel's deadly strikes continue across the country, killing at least six people within the last 24 hours despite the announcement of a new US-brokered ceasefire in name only, I guess. It was agreed to with the Lebanese and Israeli officials who were in Washington, but not Hezbollah. They didn't agree. They described the terms of the ceasefire as a destruction of part of Lebanon and a subjugation of the rest of the country.

[00:01:40]Israel also continues to order the forced displacement of towns and villages in southern Lebanon despite the ceasefire, telling residents at at least nine locations to flee for their lives.

[00:01:51]Joining us now, senior editor for the American Conservative, Andrew Day.

[00:01:55]Andrew, what chapter of the book are we in when America announces ceasefires and Netanyahu just ignores them in Lebanon?

[00:02:04]>> Well, it's a familiar chapter. This is actually been a story that's been going on for a long time. I think what we can say is that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dragged Trump into this war with Iran and now he's holding on tight to Trump's ankles and not letting him get out of the war. And that's what we're seeing in Lebanon. It's a consistent conspicuous pattern. Whenever Trump and Iran are making diplomatic progress, whenever Trump announces that we're nearing some kind of memorandum of understanding or hopefully a peace deal of some kind, we see an escalation by Israel and Lebanon. That's not a coincidence. The purpose of doing that is to sabotage the talks and we need to make this very clear. Iran insists and has insisted since the beginning of the ceasefire that the ceasefire covers the entire regional war including the Lebanese front. And when that ceasefire was announced by the Pakistani Prime Minister, the Pakistanis have been mediating between the US and Iran, everyone gave every indication that they agreed with that formulation. The Pakistanis, the Iranians, even the Americans insisted or seemed to believe that the ceasefire does indeed cover Lebanon. The only actor that didn't agree with that is Israel because Israel doesn't want to be handcuffed as they see it by the United States and they certainly don't want the US to get a peace deal with Iran which they think will legitimize the Islamic Republic and which Netanyahu fears will end the war and be bad for him politically.

[00:03:22]>> I want to understand why Lebanon is so important to Iran and why it's so important to Israel. And you know, I get the whole like Georgetown School of Foreign Service answer that Iran has a proxy there and Hezbollah, but to me it seems more fundamental. It seems to me like Iran wants to showcase support for Lebanon so that throughout the Muslim world they can be seen as the entity that's really standing up for the Palestinian people.

[00:03:48]And Israel seems to want Lebanon as a real estate play, like a really important one to them. How do you see each of these sides evaluating the importance of the Lebanon front?

[00:03:59]>> I totally agree with that. I mean, this is fundamental for Iran. It really enhances their prestige and their credibility in the region because they are Shia and not Arab, so they can get some credibility by being perceived to defend the Palestinians and in this case defend the Lebanese people. So, that's a huge part of it. I agree with you totally. Another aspect of this is just simply that the ceasefire is supposed to cover Lebanon and Iran wants to be sure that the Americans are serious about the ceasefire, that they can trust the American negotiators, and so they want to see the complete ceasefire implemented as they conceived it and as apparently the Americans conceived it as well. That's another big part of it and I agree with you that what's going on with Israel is basically the greater Israel project. This is an expansionist, militaristic, imperialist society at this point. I don't think it can be denied, and I think Iran is trying to put pressure on Trump to pressure Netanyahu, and I think Trump is starting to understand all of this. I mean, we saw that Axios report where he called Netanyahu, told him that he was crazy, told him to knock it off in Lebanon.

[00:04:56]What are you doing? I'm trying to get this ceasefire, this peace deal with Iran. You're ruining it for me. So, that's some indication. I know some people are skeptical of that reporting.

[00:05:04]I think it probably really did happen and that Trump is really getting seriously fed up.

[00:05:09]>> And I wonder what you're tracking in Israel as a reaction to that communication from Trump to Netanyahu.

[00:05:17]>> Well, it was quite interesting because after that call was reported to have taken place, we actually saw that Israeli officials struck a very different tone than you might have expected from a client state. You know, Netanyahu said, "We're going to continue in Lebanon. We're going to bomb Beirut if we have to." We see all of his members of his coalition saying belligerent things. They want to go further north in the Litani River. You know, Israel already occupies southern Lebanon. That's a big part of the problem and it's why Hezbollah, the militant group in Lebanon that's backed by Iran, rejects the ceasefire in Lebanon Lebanon it because you know, Israel is occup- an occupying force in the south. So, what kind of ceasefire is that?

[00:05:51]>> being the state of play, is it safe to say there's going to be more violence in Lebanon, not less, despite President Trump's efforts to try to wind things down in Lebanon, get the deal with Iran, and and move on?

[00:06:04]It seems like what you're you know, predicting is that this is going to continue. The The strikes from Israel, the responses from Hezbollah, and and so forth.

[00:06:14]>> Unfortunately, I'm really not optimistic. I'm not optimistic about the situation in Lebanon, and I'm not optimistic for that reason, among others, that we're going to get a peace deal with Iran, because Trump really needs to put Netanyahu in his place and say, "Look, take one for the team. The US just expended like 60% of our missiles attacking your main adversary in the region. I think that you can knock it off in Lebanon, so that I can get this peace deal with Iran, which is what is in American's interests."

[00:06:39]>> Andrew Day, senior editor at The American Conservative. Thanks so much for joining us, as always.

[00:06:43]>> Thank you.