Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly believes that he can influence the U.S. negotiations with Iran using pro-Israel commentators and lawmakers, CNN reported.
Netanyahu is planning to pro-Israel podcaster Mark Levin to influence the negotiations surrounding the final Iran deal that is supposed to be completed in 60 days, CNN reported, citing an unnamed Israeli source, along with other media figures. Netanyahu believes he can accomplish this despite President Donald Trump signing the memorandum of understanding with the Iranian government at the Palace of Versailles in France on Wednesday, according to a video posted by French President Emmanuel Macron on X.
Le Président Trump a signé ce soir à Versailles l’accord entre l’Iran et les États-Unis.
Cet accord ouvre la voie à une paix durable et permet la réouverture du détroit d’Ormuz.
C’est un pas important dans la bonne direction pour nos compatriotes… pic.twitter.com/b1XgZrBv0m
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) June 18, 2026
Levin has a history of lobbying Trump to support Tel Aviv’s aims, Politico reported, with one incident occurring during a private White House lunch in early June where the commentator warned that Tehran was days away from getting a nuclear weapon.
That claim contradicted what the intelligence community concluded in its 2025 annual threat assessment, which assessed that Iran was “not building a nuclear weapon.” The assessment did note that Tehran has extremely large enriched uranium stockpiles, adding that the amount is “unprecedented for a state without nuclear weapons.”
The Fox News host has also openly expressed his discontent with the newly announced peace negotiations between the U.S. and Iran.
“I have asked for days, why can’t we, the people, see the damn MOU?” Levin wrote in an X post on Monday.
Levin, the Israeli Embassy, the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“In a period of two-months, Israel has gone from a great ally and partner in war … to Israeli PM Netanyahu being a difficult person who should be thanking us for saving his country from Iran,” Levin said in an X post on Monday.
Netanyahu believes the U.S. will not reach a final deal with Iran, CNN reported, citing the anonymous Israeli source.
The MOU between the U.S. and Iran demands that all combatants in the war, including Israel and Lebanon, must cease all hostilities for the deal to be upheld, Reuters reported. This proposed deal could fall through if Israel continues to strike Lebanon as it did on Thursday, when it killed 18 people with airstrikes in southern Lebanon, Al Jazeera reported.
‘Adults Are Talking’
Israel’s most recent strikes in Lebanon on Thursday may come to an end, as Hezbollah and the Israeli government have agreed to a ceasefire at 4 p.m. local time, Reuters reported, citing a senior U.S. official. However, past ceasefires between Lebanon and Israel had not been long-lived.
Trump has announced ceasefires between Israel and Lebanon that went nowhere in the past.
“I just had excellent conversations with the Highly Respected President Joseph Aoun, of Lebanon, and Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, of Israel. These two Leaders have agreed that in order to achieve PEACE between their Countries,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on April 16.
The April 16 ceasefire was only eight days after Operation Eternal Darkness, which saw the Israeli Defense Forces kill 361 people and injure over 1,000 people in a single day on April 8, the BBC reported, citing Lebanese authorities.
Only four days after the April 16 ceasefire, Israel was back at it on April 20, launching airstrikes into Lebanon, The Associated Press reported.
Conservative commentator and Daily Caller News Foundation co-founder Tucker Carlson pointed out that Israel was not involved in the U.S. peace talks with Iran.
“As of right now, we were waging a war with Israel, and we just reached the outline of a peace agreement with the country we are fighting with Israel, without consulting Israel. We sent them a copy,” Carlson said on Wednesday on the Tucker Carlson Show. “That’s exactly what that means. Shh! Adults are talking. That’s exactly what Trump is saying to Israel.”
“Then he [Trump] goes on to say, ‘Yeah, I mean, I think what they’re doing in, and I understand you got to defend yourself and everything, but like it’s brutal what they’re doing. It’s brutal what they’re doing in Beirut, in Lebanon, blowing up apartment buildings,’” Carlson said, paraphrasing statements from Trump.
Trump’s real statement was less poignant, but carried the same message.
“You can do a little softer touch, Bibi,” Trump said at the G7 summit on Wednesday. “You don’t have to knock down a building every time somebody walks into it that’s from Hezbollah.”
“I’m saying, when two drones are shot into the desert and dropped harmlessly, you don’t have to knock down buildings in Beirut. They could behave better,” Trump said at the summit. “But they could do a much better job with Hezbollah. On that, I don’t think they’re doing well, and I feel very bad for Lebanon.”
Trump was not alone in his criticism of Israel. Vice President J.D. Vance has also said that Israel should be more considerate of the U.S., who he said was Israel’s only ally in the world.
“Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time, and he happens to be the head of state of the world’s superpower,” Vance said during a White House press briefing on Thursday. “If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world.”
(DCNF)
