“Welcome back to YTV on the hour. I’m Kaliban Devie coming to you live from Israel with all of the top headlines coming out of the region and beyond. Now, it’s currently 7:00 a.m. in New York City. It’s 2 p.m. here in Israel. And here are the latest developments. And there are dramatic developments in the crisis with Iran as President Trump says a US Iran agreement to end the war is now largely negotiated and could be announced shortly even as major questions remain over Iran’s nuclear program and the future of the Strait of Hormuz.”
“Trump said the emerging memorandum of understanding would include the reopening of the straight of Hormuz, which is of course the critical waterway through which a large share of the world’s oil supply passes. But just hours later, Iran’s FARS news agency pushed back saying the strait would remain under Iranian management and calling Trump’s statements incomplete and inconsistent with reality.”
“At the same time, three senior Iranian officials told the New York Times that Iran has agreed in principle to a framework that would halt the fighting, reopen the strait, ease the US naval blockade on Iranian ports, and release billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets. Significantly, Iranian officials said the nuclear issue has been pushed to a later phase of negotiations despite repeated demands by President Trump that Iran give up its stockpile of highlyenriched uranium and abandon any path to a nuclear agreement. Well, this fastmoving diplomacy has reportedly alarmed Israeli officials who say the emerging deal could pose ‘a very big problem for Israel’ if Iran receives economic benefits without immediate limits on its nuclear or missile programs. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held urgent consultations with security chiefs and coalition leaders while President Trump said a phone call with Netanyahu went very well.”
“The US President also held talks with regional leaders and mediators, saying final details of the agreement are now being discussed. Meanwhile, intense fighting is ongoing in the north. The IDF says it eliminated multiple Hezbollah operatives in south Lebanon while drone alerts continue to trigger sirens across northern Israel.”
“The army also announcing the identity of another soldier killed in Lebanon fighting. Staff Sergeant Noam Hamburger, 23 from Atlite, was killed when an explosive drone launched from Lebanon struck troops inside Israeli territory. Another soldier was seriously wounded and a non-commissioned officer was lightly wounded.”
“Now, the army says troops operating in the southern Lebanese port city of Ty killed five Hezbollah operatives after identifying them entering a command center belonging to the terror group north of Israel’s controlled security zone. The IDF said ground forces directed an air strike that destroyed the building and eliminated the operatives.”
“Overnight, Israeli surveillance forces also identified two armed suspects approaching the border near the Lebanese village of Yaun. The military said an Air Force jet struck the men and follow-up strikes were carried out after movement was detected at the scene. The IDF saying additional Hisbollah weapons depot terror infrastructure operatives deemed threats were also targeted during operations in South Lebanon.”
“Meanwhile, air raid sirens sounded repeatedly across northern Israel after drones were launched from Lebanon. Several suspicious aerial targets were intercepted. Some other drones lost contact before crossing into Israeli airspace. And moving south, an Israeli air strike in northern Gaza has killed at least five Hamas police officers as clashes continue with the IDF confronting armed terrorists on a daily basis amid the fragile ceasefire in Gaza.”
“The strike targeted a Hamas police position in the Alto area of North Gaza. Hospital officials said several others were wounded. Meanwhile, Nicolay Malonev, the lead envoy for President Trump’s Board of Peace, told the UN Security Council that Gaza risks becoming permanently divided if the current ceasefire collapses.”
“Milad have warned that more than 2 million Gazans could end up confined to less than half the territory while Hamas retains military and administrative control over it. He said Hamas’s refusal to disarm remains the main obstacle towards implementing the ceasefire and cautioned that without a political solution of another generation of Gazans could be left living in tents with no path to reconstruction, security or a future Palestinian state.”
“Hamas rejected the report, accusing the Board of Peace of justifying Israeli military actions and the continued blockade of Gaza. Here’s Madv: ‘While the board of peace continues its work, I want to be clear about the risks of inaction by the parties. The risk is that the deteriorating status quo becomes permanent.'”
“‘A divided Gaza, Hamas holding military and administrative control over 2 million people across less than half the territory. Those people are likely to remain trapped in the rubble dependent on aid with no meaningful reconstruction because reconstruction financing will not follow where weapons have not been laid down. No investment, no movement, no horizon.'”
“‘And the result, another generation of children growing up in tense, in fear, with despair as the most rational thing for them to feel. No security for Israel and no viable pathway to Palestinian self-determination.'”
“And staying on Gaza, Israeli intelligence has created a list of every Palestinian identified as taking part in the October 7th attacks, including Hamas leaders, operatives, and even civilians who crossed into Israel during the massacre. This according to a report in the Wall Street Journal which says Israel has used videos filmed by Hamas operatives themselves, social media footage, intercepted phone calls, and facial recognition technology to identify the thousands of Palestinians involved. Officials told the paper that individuals are only added to the list when there are at least two pieces of evidence linking them to the attacks, which left about 1,200 Israelis murdered and 251 taken hostage.”
“Now, the RDF campaign reportedly began immediately after October 7th and has continued throughout the war, including during the current ceasefire. The journal says hundreds of names have already been crossed off the list through targeted strikes and operations. The report also describes cases where individuals with no formal terror affiliation were targeted after being identified in footage from the attack.”
“Israel has long insisted that those targeted continue to pose an imminent threat to IDF forces and Israeli civilians. Legal experts quoted in the report said international law does allow the targeting of active belligerance, though questions remain over how far such operations can go after the initial attack.”
“Israeli officials have compared the campaign to the Mossad hunt for those responsible for the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre where members of the Palestinian terror group Black September murdered 11 Israeli athletes. Now following that attack, Israel launched a secret Mossad operation known as Wrath of God, tracking down those responsible across Europe and the Middle East over a period of years.”
“Suspected planners, operatives, and supporters were targeted in a series of covert operations and commander raids in Paris, Rome, Cypress, Beirut, and other locations. Let’s get back to the Iran conflict and break down the latest developments on this subject. Joining us for more is reserves IDF Brigadier General Relic Shafir. He’s a former Air Force base commander and one of Israel’s legendary top guns, and Professor Gerald Steinberg who heads NGO monitor. Gentlemen, thank you for joining us. Um Gerald, I want to start with you just your breakdown on what you think is happening here. Uh, President Trump, it sounds like potentially telling different things to different partners here, but there are some things about the reported ceasefire that does seem relevant, particularly that it takes a number of steps, initiates a 60-day ceasefire while basically pushing the key nuclear issues a little down the road.”
“I’m going to do it in two parts briefly. First of all, let’s be careful about reports, leaks, deliberate leaks, manipulations. We’re seeing this across the board, not just President Trump, not just in Washington, but also from Tehran. Everybody’s leaking something which they claim is going to be the basis of the report. Acceptable, not acceptable. Uranium is going to be taken out of the country. The enriched uranium, highly enriched uranium, not being taken out of the country 60 days. Some people say, ‘Well, that’s just enough time for the big soccer tournament that takes place, the World Cup in the United States, so that Trump wants to get over that over with and then after 60 days go back to war.'”
“We could have war starting again tomorrow. There’s still very large number of American forces in the region. But looking at the substance of what’s being leaked and what’s being put out there, if we take that as an attempt to create some sort of public support for a package along those lines, it is very problematic for Israel.”
“First of all, the highly enriched uranium enough to make a number of bombs 60% easily raised up to 90% if the Iranian capabilities can be quickly restored. There have been reports that Russia and China have been helping Iran restore. All of these things of course are unconfirmed, unverified, very questionable whether they’re accurate or not.”
“But if there’s an agreement that does not remove the uranium in a short period of time, 30 days, I think 60 days is even too long, then it’s going to be very very difficult for Israel to accept those terms. Now, Israel could decide to act on its own, which will be a problem for Israel American relations and try to attack those facilities, but I think that’s a major issue that is of great concern.”
“Does this agreement include will it include Lebanon? If this forces on Israel a long-term ceasefire and even perhaps forces Israel to withdraw in part or all the way back, that’s also going to be a major problem to reconstitute the threat that they had before October 7th. So there are many aspects of this that that are raised and we’re going to have to wait to see what the details are, what the Israeli response is after this package is released.”
“Okay. Okay. Well, Relic, I want you to pick up on some of Gerald’s points, particularly how feasible or not is it that Israel could either take action now. They’re not going to go against President Trump during a ceasefire. But if this thing just simply carries on in this kind of sort of like stalemate and we know that Iran is rebuilding its missile capabilities quite possibly its nuclear facilities quite possibly even dealing with that enriched buried enriched uranium. How realistic is for Israel to have any military options on its own even with the approval of the US? And of course, the issue that Gerald raised about the war in the north against Hezbollah. What we’re seeing is that this agreement would allow Israel to react against I guess they call it Hezbollah provocations, but of course it is allowing Hezbollah to sort of reconstitute itself and potentially rearm itself. How problematic would that be for Israel going forward?”
“Let’s start off with the North. Um, if this Iran deal goes on and it is clear that the Iranians were able to manufacture an agreement that focuses on the nuclear issue and they lingered on that so that their ballistic missile program and proxy program would not be part of the resolution which is very worrying.”
“But in all honesty, the United States went out into this war to take out the nuclear capabilities that we’ll talk about later. But what happens in Lebanon? Israeli forces are stationed in Lebanon about 10 to 15 kilometers north of the border. So there’s no direct ability to fire into Israeli towns.”
“If this agreement calls for Israeli forces to withdraw, I don’t see any government either this one or the next one agreeing to this kind of a constituted arrangement because this would put the Israeli villages and towns directly under threat and will result in Hezbollah willingly firing if they want to.”
“So there needs to be some kind of an in between agreement that Israel stays put where it is and the firing stops and then go into negotiations. And I think this is the only thing that Israel can really insist on because no government can actually agree to the previous position where the Hezbollah can fire at will.”
“So that part about Iran, I think the Iranians have played their cards in a way that goes back to the saying that Iran never won a war and never lost a deal. Even our their foreign minister Arachi after Donald Trump wrote out a book about how to make deals wrote his own book about deals and apparently he’s more attuned to the way they make deals in the Middle East than anybody else or at least the Americans.”
“So I think the Americans are trying to find a way out. They have the Mundial coming up and then the elections in November and I think the 60 days will probably be extended beyond the 60 days to cover the elections and only then we’ll start and maybe we’ll go back to Obama’s agreement in 2015 that had some kind of a control over their program.”
“So, it looks pretty dismal at this time.”
“Well, let me Gerald pick up on that. You mention you guys both of you also left out the 250th anniversary of US independence celebrations that President Trump is planning. So, that already that’s already July there. And yes, of course, President Trump is always there’s a report that came out just in the last couple hours in the Times of Israel saying an Israeli official says Trump assured Netanyahu if a final deal does not include the removal of the enriched uranium then Israel will be free to act. But again, the further we get the longer this goes on, if the straight of Hormuz is reopened, if we have the midterms, if other issues come up, such as the Cuba situation that’s developing, Gerald, doesn’t that sort of lessen the odds of the US taking any real action certainly on the similar scale as we saw earlier against Iran?”
“All of this is correct. I I agree with the analysis and the pessimism. However, to make this a little more interesting and I think we have to be somewhat more realistic in this, I’ll start with Senator Lindsey Graham’s comments in the last 24 hours or so. And he was very strong against the rumors, the reports, the leaks of an agreement particularly on the nuclear issue, but also I think broader in terms of leaving the regime in power and strengthened.”
“That’s not easy for President Trump to accept from his own main supporters, Republicans in the Senate very much respected that are criticizing the terms that are leaked that are reported. Now, that still may be subject to a lot of internal discussions that may move Trump back in the other direction. The other aspect which I want to emphasize is what this does.”
“You’re you’re absolutely correct. There are many reasons to expect that if there’s a temporary 60-day ceasefire and that will leak into many more reasons because that takes us at least through the midterm elections and of course the nobody in the US certainly not President Trump or anybody else would want to have the whole crisis the oil crisis and massive increase in gas prices spike again as they are now.”
“So they’re going to want to maintain that agreement. Iran certainly has the US over a barrel on this and I I agree with the analysis that they they’ve never lost the negotiation. They’re very good at that and and they ended the war still in power with enough missiles and not being able not having lost the nuclear capability or given up on Hezbollah.”
“So they’re in a good position. However, I do think there’s going to be push back and I think the question is and what distinguishes the Trump administration from the Obama agreement, the JCPOA back in 2015 that was supposed to freeze the Iranian nuclear program or even wind it down a bit for a period of up to about 10 or 15 years depending on which aspects were enforced.”
“That bought time and disagreements to buy time. But Obama did nothing with the time that was bought. There was no more pressure on the Iranian regime on the Revolutionary Guard which now controls everything in Iran straightforwardly. If the Trump administration, the Americans use the time that they’re buying through a temporary agreement, as difficult as that might be for Israel to swallow, but maintains the intense pressure on Iran, maintains the ability to go back to a conflict if necessary, and Israel has a more or less free hand, then I think that that time can be used to put more pressure on Iran. The agreement is supposed to have some sort of terms where Iran will then relinquish will ship out the 60% highly enriched uranium. If they don’t do that, if there’s no real implementation, we could go back to a conflict, a hot conflict, a kinetic conflict as it’s called.”
“So, I I’m not entirely pessimistic. But I think there’s good reason to be worried about this.”
“Right. I just want everybody to ask Relic if Israel has a free hand but if the regime is left standing its proxies more or less still standing some of the sanctions are lifted even if there’s other kinds of diplomatic pressure Relic what options really are for Israel moving forward in terms of dealing with this this new reality or a return to an old reality?”
“Well, in Hebrew, there’s a term of mowing the grass, which means that Israel may want to strike again and again around the nuclear facilities, not to allow free access, etc. Israel cannot bomb the facilities because it doesn’t have the type of weapons used by the B2s at the almost 30,000 pound bombs that were used in the time that they took out the nuclear plant.”
“And we don’t even know if the Iranians have access to the nuclear material in there. Perhaps the intelligence people know but the public doesn’t know whether they’re accessible at all.”
“So there are many questions left but can Israel strike? Yes, it can. Can it take out down the regime? Can it stop Iran from let’s say going quiet for a couple of years, waiting out Donald Trump, and then going on a long-term program? Probably not.”
“And this leaves the Middle East in an unstable situation, plus the fact that Iran is able to reflect on its neighbors and threaten its neighbors if Israel strikes them, then this will lead to a lot of pressure on the United States. And so I think the future is going to be unstable unless the United States is insistent on completing the deal down to the minute details and putting enough pressure on Iran so they can’t move out of it, which to my understanding of the US policies are not of a high probability.”
“All right. Well, as President Trump likes to say, let’s see what happens. Professor Joe Steinberg, General Relic Shiffier, thank you for joining us.”
“Thank you.”
“Thank you. Good to talk to you.”
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“And in other news, Israel is rejecting allegations of abuse made by activists detained after last week’s interception of the global Sumud flotilla attempting to breach the naval blockade of Gaza. The claims, including allegations of sexual assault, are drawing international attention and prompting some investigations in Europe. Activists released from Israeli custody claimed they were beaten, sexually abused after Israeli forces intercepted the flotilla in international waters last week. More than 400 activists from dozen of countries were detained and then deported after Israel stopped the convoy of some 50 vessels.”
“Israel’s prison service strongly denies the allegations, saying all detainees were treated in accordance with the law and received the necessary medical care. Germany and Italy say they are viewing the complaints while some EU members are reportedly discussing possible sanctions against the national security minister Idomar Benvir following criticism over video of his behavior in a detention facility.”
“France’s foreign minister announced that Benvir is immediately banned from all French territory in response to his reprehensible actions towards the activists. Meanwhile, Spanish police have clashed with supporters of the flotilla at Bilba airport after the arrival of flotilla activists there deported from Israel.”
“Video from the scene showed police using batons, forcibly restraining people and detaining several supporters who had gathered to welcome six Spanish activists back home. The confrontation began after the relative of one of the activists tried to approach the group in the arrivals hall. Basque police say four people were arrested on charges including resisting arrest and assaulting officers.”
“Authorities have opened an internal investigation into the conduct of the police. And Israel’s foreign ministry posted video of the incident demanding an explanation of the Spanish government over what it called the treatment of the flotilla anarchists. Well, joining us for more on this is Angel Moss. He’s president of ACOM or Action and Communication on the Middle East which is the main group in Spain combating anti-semitism and advocating for Spanish relations. Angel, thank you for joining us. First of all, I just want to get your reaction to that footage from the airport in Bilbao of Spanish police beating down these activists.”
“Well, I can only imagine the response that would be if that would have happened at something like that at Ben Gurion airport. Of course, it’s such an irony, but at the end of the day, we know who these characters are in Spain. We know that they are troublemakers, that they are proxies for terrorist groups, that they have this violent behavior in internal politics as well as in international matters.”
“They are a group that are always on the fringe on the radical extremist causes and of course they had problems with Spanish police on this and on other things all along. What is more concerning of course is that these same guys that have to be restrained by the Spanish police are very close to the Spanish government or to members of the Spanish government or to groups that support the Spanish government.”
“So there’s, you know, a very close link between the Spanish government that suddenly is incredibly concerned about the well-being of these individuals when they act in Israel, not when they act in Spain, but very close to them and the Spanish government has been supporting them even financially for a long time.”
“Right. And let’s talk, let’s broaden this out into the state of Spanish-Israeli relations which probably I would say are the worst now in Europe given the current but how much of that is directly related to the current government the current prime minister of Spain and more generally in the Spanish public for example the reactions to what’s been happening just in the last couple of days?”
“Clearly Spain is not an anti-semitic country. I want the Israeli public to understand that in other countries there’s anti-semitism is felt in the streets when they identify you visibly as a Jewish person. That’s not the case in Spain. Spain is driven from the government down, not grassroots, and it’s true that is permeating somehow in the Spanish society but it’s a new phenomena and is driven by Sanchez. Sanchez is a corrupt politician. Sanchez is a very unpopular prime minister. Sanchez never won an election here. Yesterday in Madrid, there was a massive demonstration, massive demonstration against Sanchez and that’s the public opinion here. Now he uses all these causes as smoke screens to basically create an atmosphere of radicalism and confrontation.”
“But underneath that there’s a long chain of a long history of support for these extremist groups that are as I say in the ecosystem in the groups that have been supporting this radical government we have in Spain. Last week, the US Treasury declared two naturalized citizens, Palestinian citizens that have been naturalized as Spanish as in the list of O of Saif Abu Keshek and Khali Abu Bakra. And these two guys have a long history of connection with the Spanish government. And these two guys have been identified by the US administration as close to terrorist groups. And we have been after these guys for a long time because even in the Spanish parliament, they have supported what they called armed struggle, what they glorified 7th of October. It’s incredible.”
“All right, we’ll have to leave it at that. There’s much more that could be said. Angel Mas Ste from ACOM, thank you so much for joining us on TV.”
“Thank you.”
“And that’s a wrap for this edition on ILV. I’m Khal Bended. Thank you for joining us and do keep watching.”
