There is an interesting debate going on in Israel about when and where the country must listen to Trump imposing limits to maintain his support on other critical military and other issues.
What happens when you promise the country that there will be no limits on the IDF’s actions repeatedly, and then there repeatedly are limits? This is the dilemma that Defense Minister Israel Katz has after many prior promises and another promise Monday night. It happened in June 2025 when he publicly promised that Israel would strike Iran again on a massive scale after the Islamic Republic briefly, and without much impact, violated the ceasefire negotiated by US President Donald Trump.
Trump called back the aircraft that Katz sent to strike Iran. A small and insignificant symbolic strike was allowed. Katz never explained the turnaround.Similar incidents happened when Katz promised Israel would keep striking Iran after Trump’s April 7 ceasefire with Iran. He also leaked to many sources that Trump and Tehran were too far apart, so they would never reach a framework agreement – until they did. More recently, Katz has said the IDF can bomb and attack anything and everything in Lebanon, including in Beirut – except Trump has now said it cannot, so it has stopped.
Katz has said the IDF will not withdraw from any area it has taken over anytime in the near future. And yet leaks pretty much confirm that this promise will also be proved wrong. Late on Monday, Katz promised by direct video message to the public that the IDF will continue to act everywhere and anywhere it needs to. But leaks are rampant that on both the northern and southern borders, officially or unofficially, commanders are on edge about when they can use force and when they cannot, and how long they will need to retreat from their current positions. (Ed note: This is not good on many levels.) (Read More)
