News Digest — 6/16/26
Netanyahu: Stopping Iran’s Nuclear Program Is ‘The Mission Of My Life’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday (15th) that Israel does not yet know the final terms of the agreement between the United States and Iran, but he insisted that any deal must be backed by a credible military threat. He also reiterated his commitment to preventing Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
Speaking at his first press conference since March, Netanyahu argued that the current situation differs from previous diplomatic efforts because of military pressure on Iran.
“Any agreement must be accompanied by a credible military threat. Today, because we carried out 14,000 sorties, there is a credible military threat against Iran.”
The prime minister said that preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons has been the central focus of his public life, and he pledged to continue pursuing that objective regardless of the outcome of negotiations.
“I have devoted most of my life to preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said. “We will do what is necessary, and I do not limit myself in any way regarding that objective – Iran will not have nuclear weapons.”
Netanyahu also called the effort to stop Iran’s nuclear program “the mission of my life.” “With or without an agreement , Iran will not have nuclear weapons. As long as I am prime minister, it will not happen,” he vowed.
Addressing reports of tension between him and President Donald Trump, Netanyahu said they do not always agree but maintain a longstanding relationship.
“Trump and I have known each other for many years,” he said. “Many times we see things eye to eye, and sometimes we don’t. I am responsible for Israel’s security interests and must act without grandstanding.”
Netanyahu also rejected suggestions that Operation Rising Lion had failed to achieve its objectives.
“Who said I was wrong?” he replied when asked about the operation. Israel, he said, removed what he described as an existential threat, inflicted major damage on Iran’s economy and infrastructure, and created conditions that could allow the Iranian people to challenge the regime.
On Lebanon, Netanyahu said Israel would maintain its security presence in the north.
“We will remain in the security zone as long as necessary,” he said, adding that Israel would preserve its freedom of action against threats.
The prime minister also stated that Israel would continue maintaining security zones in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria and would not allow terrorist organizations to establish themselves along its borders.
Asked about domestic politics, Netanyahu said, “I am going to run in the next election, and intend to win.”
The press conference was held shortly after President Donald Trump said the agreement with Iran had already been signed and that the Strait of Hormiz was partially open, adding that sanctions would remain in place until Iran fulfills its obligations.
The Prime Minister’s Office later said Netanyahu never identified the overthrow of Iran’s ayatollah regime as an official objective but had called on the Iranian people to rise up against those ruling them.
‘We Are All Shocked’ By Deal, Worry That Regime Will Feel It Won, Iran Sources Tell ‘Post’
Iranians who oppose the regime were “shocked” by the emerging details of an agreement between the US and Iran, an Iranian source told The Jerusalem Post on Monday (15th).
The source, who is in touch with Iranians inside Iran and is knowledgeable about the situation on the ground in various parts of the country, discussed how the emerging agreement is being greeted in Iran.
Friends say “everything was going on organically to the advantage of the Iranian people and the world since the first war in June 2025 started against the islamic Republic,” the source said, adding that the 12-day-war, which began with Israel strikes against Iran, was successful.
Nevertheless, dissidents in Iran have been surprised by the outcome of the Trump administration’s involvement, according to the source.
“He came to harvest what the Israelis had planted, while the tree was still sapling, and ruined the seeding,” the source said.
One surprising comment among opponents of the regime is talk about how hardliners could stage a military coup inside Iran, because there is opposition to the emerging deal among elements of the IRGC, the source said, adding: “There’s numbers [sic] of hardliners in the body yet.”
“Reformists in the IRGC [Islamic revolutionary Guard Corps] “ have been doing “a purge in recent months,” the source said. “They have isolated the hardliners.”
The concern is that within Iran, the regime perceives an emerging deal apparently mediated by Pakistan and Qatar, as a win for Tehran. “On Iranian state TV, they described it as the victory of the axis of resistance against the US,” the source notes. “We are all shocked. I was talking with a friend in Iran a few hours ago. They can’t believe they made this deal.”
The concern among those who oppose the regime in Iran, is that the US has been convinced to make this deal.”
Opponents of the regime are concerned that the US has been convinced to make this deal, the source said, adding that the Trump administration has been fooled by the regime.
“We were thinking that hardliners in Iran won’t allow the moderates and reformists to do the deal with the US,” the source said.
This has led some to believe that it might be preferable for the “hardliners in Iran to gain more temporary power so that they can stop this agreement from being realized,” the source added.
In a sense, the hardliners could sabotage the deal, which would weaken the regime in the long run, the source said.
“The moderates within the IRGC, and those working with them, understand the language of Western diplomacy,” the source said. They know how to mislead Western governments, how to switch to the role of the ‘victim,’ and how to shape international public opinion so that it looks as if the Islamic Republic has been treated unfairly.”
Iranian dissidents are concerned that the regime and its proxies, such as the Houthis and Hezbollah, have won, the sources said.
There is a sense that the Iranian people deserved better than what has happened, the source added. They were massacred in protests in January, and then the war that began on February 28 did not bring the toppling of the regime. Instead, the regime might feel empowered, the source said.
Israel Reclaims State Land In City Of David Heritage Site
Personnel from the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, assisted by security forces, completed a special operation to reclaim state-owned land of significant historical and archaeological importance in the City of David in Jerusalem on Monday (15th).
According to authorities, Palestinian squatters illegally living on the land were damaging heritage sites, including burial tunnels dating back to the Second Temple period.
Evidence of antiquities looting was identified in burial caves, which had been used as warehouses and unregulated animal pens.
Rabbits, chickens, and a camel were confiscated. Workers also dismantled an improvised, polluting garage that used abandoned vehicles as storage units.
Security forces demolished structures and removed waste, while caves sealed shut by the Palestinians were reopened.
Following the operation, the Nature and Parks Authority fenced off the area and began restoration and cleanup efforts.
The City of David is an archaeological site and historic neighborhood located just south of Jerusalem’s Old City.
Archaeologists regard it as the original urban core of ancient Jerusalem, where King David established his capital.
The site contains extensive remains from multiple periods, including the First and Second Temple eras, as well as earlier Canaanite structures.
Excavations have uncovered water systems, fortifications, residential areas, and burial caves, making it one of the most significant archaeological locations in the region.
Abbas Says Palestinian Election To Be Held In 2027 – Without Setting A Date
Palestinian Authority Head Mahmoud Abbas has said a presidential election will be held in 2027, announcing the year for a vote that, if carried out, would be the first Palestinian presidential election since he was elected more than two decades ago.
The announcement was reported by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA as part of a broader decree amending Palestinian election rules.
The measure also set out changes to the Palestinian Legislative Council and said Abbas is expected to issue a decree calling for Legislative Council elections to be held alongside elections for the Palestinian National Council, the parallel parliament of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
WAFAsaid that Abbas “has also announced that presidential elections would be held in 2027” but did not report a specific date, timetable or mechanism for the vote.
The announcement comes amid mounting pressure on Abbas, 90, to renew the legitimacy of Palestinian institutions after years without national elections.
Abbas was elected President in January 2005 after the death of Yasser Arafat. His four-year term expired in 2009, but he has remained in office while governing the Palestinian Authority by decree.
The last Palestinian legislative election was held in 2006, when Hamas won a majority.
A year later Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip from Fatah forces, leaving Abbas’ Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority governing limited areas of Judea and Samaria, while Hamas ruled Gaza.
Abbas has repeatedly promised elections in the past.
A 2021 plan called for legislative elections in May and a presidential vote in July, but the process was postponed indefinitely after Abbas cited the lack of Israeli approval for voting in predominantly Arab neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem.
Hamas, Fatah rivals, and Palestinian civil society groups accuse Abbas at the time of using the Jerusalem dispute to avoid a vote that could weaken Fatah.
In recent years, Abbas has become increasingly unpopular and politically weakened, with pollster Khalil Shikaki saying Abbas “has become a liability to his own party, and for the Palestinians as a whole.” Shikaki told AP last year that “His legacy was depleted long ago,”
We Are Told That Israel Has Lost The World – Victor Satya
Since Oct. 7, we are told that Israel has lost the world. It has squandered goodwill. It has alienated its allies. It has isolated itself through its conduct in Gaza. Israel was attacked in the most brutal massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, responded by fighting a just war against the organization that carried out that massacre, and somehow emerged as the primary culprit in the eyes of much of the international community.
There is only one problem with the theory. It assumes Israel enjoyed remarkable support before Oct. 7. When exactly was the golden age? Was it when student groups were calling for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions against the Jewish state? Was it when anti-Israel activism became a permanent feature of university life? Or was it at the UN, where Israel has long occupied a unique category of international obsession?
From 2015 through 2024, the UN General Assembly adopted more than twice as many resolutions against Israel as it did against all other countries combined. At the UN Human Rights Council, democratic Israel has routinely attracted more condemnation than regimes run by dictators, warlords, and revolutionary clerics. Apparently, the world’s most pressing human rights crisis is not Syria, Iran, North Korea, or Russia.
We are told that Gaza transformed Israel into an international outcast. Curiously, many international institutions seem to have reached that conclusion years before Gaza. The idea that Oct. 7 destroyed decades of goodwill would be more persuasive if anyone could point to the decades of goodwill.
Before Israeli forces had entered Gaza in significant numbers, before casualty figures dominated headlines, before military operations had fully unfolded, many people had already decided who the villain was. A remarkable amount of outrage appeared before Israel had done much of anything in Gaza at all. Israel is subjected to demands rarely made of any other country. It is expected to defeat enemies without defeating them and eliminating threats without using force.
If support disappears the moment it is tested, was it ever real support at all? An ally who vanishes during a war was never much of an ally. And support that exists only during periods of calm is not support in any meaningful sense of the word.
