Here is the English translation of the article:
And What if the Agreement with Iran Collapses? – Rabbi Yehuda Epstein, Chairman of Kedushat Zion
Sunday, 13 Tammuz 5786 (June 28, 2026)
In our highly volatile region, there is never a dull moment, and now we are being told about a historic agreement between Israel and Lebanon. The Prime Minister boasts that he has pushed Iran out of the picture and reached an arrangement with Lebanon and the United States, under which Israel will withdraw from Lebanon and Hezbollah will be disarmed. By whom? The Lebanese army, of course. The “conception” is alive and kicking. Just as the PLO was supposed to take care of Hamas, and just as Hamas in Gaza supposedly wanted calm, now—the Lebanese army will take care of Hezbollah.
It is a bit hard for me to believe that Netanyahu actually buys into this story, but he is unwilling to defy Trump’s words, and we will all pay the price. Trump is racing toward a “New Middle East,” and underneath the Shiite Axis of Evil, he is establishing a Sunni Axis of Evil, which includes Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Syria—whose hatred for Israel is no less than Iran’s, and whose cunning surpasses it, as they know the exact recipe for pleasing Trump: a little honor and a lot of money. Netanyahu knows all this very well, but for all his diplomatic and rhetorical talent, he is unable to withstand the steamroller from Washington, and thus, one by one, the tremendous military achievements attained at a heavy price of blood are being hollowed out.
Now, the hopes of many on the Right are pinned on the agreement with Iran blowing up, so that the American president will return to his alliance with Israel. And I ask—what if? If the agreement does indeed collapse, what will happen?
If we just step out of the political-diplomatic plane for a moment and ascend a floor to the place where things are truly determined—to the values-based, spiritual, and ideological plane—we will discover that when the problem is rooted in our national identity, the solution will also not come from a diplomatic coincidence or the caprice of a president with shifting moods, even if his name is Donald Trump.
When the Americans noted that “Israel has no territorial claims in Lebanon,” it was clear that we had lost the campaign. When the Prime Minister says that “returning to settle in Gaza is unrealistic,” the foundation was laid for the shameful capitulation that normalized the massacre in the Gaza envelope under the auspices of Trump’s “peace” plan. When Trump ordered a halt to the war against Iran and Israel obeyed as if it were an American province—despite being a people that “rises like a lioness and lifts itself up like a lion”—the basis was laid for the continuation of the stranglehold on Israel, in preparation for the next attempt to bring a Holocaust upon us, may G-d protect us.
Israel has fought heroically on all fronts for more than two and a half years. But the military victories have always dissolved in the face of a cruel political reality because, unlike the enemy—who is focused on the clear goal of destroying Israel—we are only trying to survive and justify our existence in this space. We have no territorial claims in Lebanon, we have no desire to return and settle in Gaza, we have no aspirations in Transjordan, and above all—we have no desire to expel the Arab enemy from within us, which is the most dangerous enemy of all. We sit and wait for the next attempt to destroy us, boasting about the “Iron Dome” system as if it were natural for missiles to be fired at us, while we merely try to increase the success rates of the interception. Is this why we returned to our land after two thousand years?
If we want to change course, the solution is not to make an agreement for the Lebanese army to disarm Hezbollah. Just as Qatari dollars did not buy the long-awaited quiet in Gaza, but only fueled the murder machine built right under our noses. And just as the Oslo Accords brought only illusions—as if by fleeing from the territories of the Land of Israel, we would also manage to flee from the Jewish identity rooted in that very land. The exploding buses in Israel’s cities, the missiles from Lebanon, and the massacre in the Gaza envelope reminded us all that the solution lies elsewhere…
The time has come to change the equation in the Middle East. The time has come to move from defense to offense, from Iron Dome missile interceptions to fulfilling the blessing we read this Shabbat in the Torah portion, and after which the previous operation in Iran was named (Numbers 23:24): “Behold, a people that rises like a lioness, and lifts itself up like a lion; it does not lie down until it eats prey and drinks the blood of the slain.” The time has come to fulfill the words of prophecy we read this Shabbat in the Book of Micah (5:7): “And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among flocks of sheep, which, if it passes through, treads down and tears in pieces, and there is none to deliver.” Only in this way can we break the stranglehold, which is now also receiving American sponsorship from the Trump administration…
This change will not happen on its own. It is conditional upon a deep shift in consciousness regarding the most fundamental questions of our existence. It requires us to deeply explore what we are doing here, and for what purpose we returned to our land after two thousand years. What is the logic in taking a small nation scattered to all corners of the earth and bringing it into an ocean of bottomless hatred that stretches across vast continents from Indonesia to Turkey, and in recent years even to Western Europe and the US? There is no logic in this other than the fulfillment of the Creator’s promise to be our G-d and that we be His treasured people, cleaving to His ways and sanctifying His name on the stage of world history. The covenant that G-d made with Abraham “Between the Pieces” must stand at the foundation of an amended Declaration of Independence, and the Giving of the Torah must be the basis for the nation’s constitution. Only in this way can we present a vision, present a path, and present a political plan to perfect the world under the sovereignty of the Almighty—against the Iranian-Qatari-Saudi-Turkish plan to conquer the world for Islam, and against the moral decay of Western culture.
When we say with pride that the state of Lebanon sits on the stolen land of the tribes of Asher and Naphtali and that we intend to correct this distortion; when we say with pride that Gaza is an inseparable part of the Land of Israel; when we tear to shreds the accursed Oslo Accords and stop referring to the heritage of our ancestors by alienated English letter names [Areas A, B, C]; when we declare that Iran and any other country threatening our existence will be destroyed to its foundations; when we behave as the masters of the house who returned to their land by virtue of the eternal promise of G-d, and not as robbers seeking a shred of legitimacy from the world for our very existence—then the world will also learn to respect our demands. Then the President of the United States will also understand that there is nothing to talk to us about regarding delusional agreements that will only bring more bloodshed. Then we will merit the blessing of G-d reserved for His chosen people. Then Trump too will understand that his interest is to support Israel, because “those who curse you are cursed, and those who bless you are blessed.”
It is pointless to look for solutions of no substance. The exit from the political trap passes only through the exit from the cognitive trap!
The author is Rabbi Yehuda Epstein – Chairman of the Kedushat Zion Association, the association of Haredim for the seeking of Zion in holy purity.