Consortium News
Volume 31, Number 145 — Friday, May 29, 2026
Ben-Gvir Says Israel ‘Will Not Allow’ Iran Peace Deal
As Israel continued its “Gaza model” of mass slaughter and expanding occupation in Lebanon, its security minister said the “whole cabinet” opposed ending the war on Iran, Stephen Prager reports
No War With Iran march in Washington, D.C., on April 8. (Diane Krauthamer, Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
By Stephen Prager
Common Dreams
As Israel launched a new bombardment of Lebanon, its far-right security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, suggested Tel Aviv was trying to derail ongoing peace negotiations between U.S. President Donald Trump and Iran.
The influential settler politician railed against the possibility of a deal to end the war as it neared the three-month mark and said the whole Israeli Cabinet was in agreement.
“I know that Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and all of us members of the Cabinet… as the government of Israel, cannot allow this to happen,” Ben-Gvir said in Hebrew at a press briefing Tuesday. “This is an agreement that can harm the state of Israel, and we will not allow this to happen.”
Israeli minister Ben Gvir says Trump's deal with Iran is "bad for Israel" and that Israel will not "allow" it.
Let that sink in.
And remember this clip next time someone claims that a factual conversation about the Israeli government's influence in DC is off-limits... Show more
Ben-Gvir’s remarks came as Trump engaged in what he has suggested was another promising round of ceasefire talks with the Iranians — talks that did not include Israel.
Despite its Foreign Ministry condemning recent U.S. attacks as signs of “bad faith” and “definitive violations” of the ceasefire, Iran has not pulled away from the table.
Citing Iranian state TV, Reuters reported on Wednesday that Tehran has received an unofficial framework from the U.S. that would restore commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz to pre-war levels for a month in exchange for the U.S. withdrawing troops from Iran’s vicinity and lifting its naval blockade. The U.S. has disputed this account.
Trump has previously attempted to force Iran to accept major concessions on its nuclear program upfront, but nuclear-related talks appear to have been shifted to future negotiations.
While it has not been at the center of the latest round of negotiations, Iran still considers ending Israel’s assault on Lebanon to be an essential part of a durable peace.
At least 31 people have been killed in Israeli attacks across southern Lebanon as Israel says it is intensifying operations against Hezbollah.
The group launched a series of deadly drone attacks on Israeli forces in northern Israel.
As it has during previous peace negotiations between Iran and the U.S., Israel launched another major bombardment against Lebanon on Tuesday, violating the 45-day ceasefire that went into effect last month.
Israeli forces conducted more than 120 airstrikes across southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley against what they said were Hezbollah targets, according to The Guardian, as Netanyahu said Israel would “intensify” its military campaign.
According to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, 31 people were killed and 40 were wounded. In the southern town of Burj al-Shamali, 14 people were killed, including two children and three women, the ministry said.
Since Israel’s offensive began in early March, more than 3,200 people have been killed and over 9,700 wounded, according to the ministry. More than 600 people have been killed since the April truce began.
Sources also told Reuters that Israel had expanded its occupation of southern Lebanon, past its so-called security zone. Israeli forces ordered the residents of dozens of Lebanese villages not to return to their homes in the occupation zone, which Israel is trying to expand to between 5 and 10 kilometers inside Lebanon.
In what Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has described as a renewal of its “Gaza model,” Israel had demolished or damaged more than 40,000 homes in southern Lebanon before last month’s truce went into effect, though destruction has continued since then. More than 1 million people in Lebanon have been displaced as a result of forced evacuation orders and bombardments by Israel.
Hezbollah responded on Tuesday with drone attacks on Israel, which it had already been launching for weeks in response to what it said were persistent ceasefire violations.
Another far-right Israeli Cabinet member, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, said Israel should respond to each drone by destroying 10 buildings in Beirut. If there are no buildings left in Beirut, he said, Israel should expand the demolitions to other areas such as Tyre, Sidon and the Bekaa Valley.
Ben-Gvir, meanwhile, said Israel should “cut off the electricity in Lebanon,” “occupy” the area up to the Zahrani River and “return to a massive war.”
Israel has just committed massacres across Lebanon with 150 airstrikes in 24 hours on the first day of Eid Al Adha.
The timing of Israel’s renewed assault on Lebanon has been met with accusations that it is attempting to sabotage ceasefire talks between the U.S. and Iran.
Shaiel Ben-Ephraim, a former diplomat with the Israeli Foreign Ministry who has since become a prominent critic of the country, said that by moving deeper into Lebanon, Israel was “moving to bury not only the supposed ceasefire in Lebanon but also talks on Iran” because its policy “is an endless and wide regional war.”
Responding to Ben-Gvir’s remarks, he said, “Israel forced the U.S. into war and won’t let us end it.”
Stephen Prager is a staff writer for Common Dreams.
