If truth be told the Wall Street Journal and its favorite tabloid The New York Post are praying for a victory in November by Dr. El-Sayed.
The WSJ editorial page will be in overdrive excoriating the Doctor for the next six years. It will be great for circulation and provide plenty of Red Meat to the WSJ crowd.
Wall Street Journal Opinion 8.5.2026
The March of the El-Sayed Democrats
His victory in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary sets up the race of the year in November.
Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary on Tuesday is no surprise in this year of rising radicalism in the party. But maybe hold off on French Revolution 2.0. Democratic voters made the race far closer than pollsters predicted, and now Mr. El-Sayed will have to persuade voters beyond Ann Arbor and the white liberal gentry.
New York Times – 8.6.2026The Daily Beast – 8.5.2026
Mr. El-Sayed, an articulate 41-year-old public-health official, was expected to roll over Rep. Haley Stevens. But his lead was 1% on Wednesday when the race was called. The narrow victory suggests many Democrats had second thoughts about nominating a man with radical views hailed by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as the next great progressive hope.
Progressive is an understatement. Mr. El-Sayed now says he’s a “capitalist,” distancing himself from the Democratic Socialists of America, but his agenda remains the full Bernie Sanders. He continues to support Medicare for All. He favors a wealth tax and an enormous expansion in federal entitlements for child care and more. He wants to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying the agency “is about normalizing paramilitary force on our streets.”
He has a particular animus toward Israel and has campaigned with Hasan Piker, the Mao Zedong fanboy and Soviet Union admirer who has said the U.S. “deserved 9/11.” Mr. El-Sayed wants to cut off all U.S. military aid to Israel, which he accuses of genocide in Gaza.
For a President who is so media savvy and friendly when it suits him the blogger can only continue to look on with dismay as Donald Trump assaults the First Amendment and crush the right to publish.
During his second term Trump’s Department of Justice has already issued subpoenas against The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.
Does Trump seriously believe these mainstream media giants are standing idly by while its reporters are harassed by his DOJ? Thank goodness these publications are having none of it.
Excerpted from The New York Times 8.1.2026
Previously undisclosed subpoena, involving reporting on a failed 2019 SEAL Team 6 mission in North Korea, reflects the Trump’s expanding campaign to investigate leaks of what Trump labels secrets.
A freelance reporter has been fighting a subpoena from the Trump administration seeking to force him to reveal his sources for a New York Times article about a failed top secret mission in North Korea, according to people familiar with the matter.
Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesman for The Times, said in a statement that the subpoena to Matthew Cole was “part of the government’s escalating attacks on journalists, which should concern all Americans.” He added that the demand to disclose Mr. Cole’s sources “is another brazen and illegal attack from the administration designed to deny the public information of vital importance.”
The subpoena, which has not been previously disclosed, reflects the administration’s intensifying campaign to investigate leaks of government secrets by pressuring reporters to divulge their sources. Until President Trump began his second term, federal subpoenas to reporters were exceedingly rare.
In February, F.B.I. agents showed up at the New York home of the reporter, Matthew Cole, to deliver the grand jury subpoena, which was issued by prosecutors in Newport News, Va., according to the people familiar with the matter, who described the private conversations on the condition of anonymity.
The Times is providing a legal defense to Mr. Cole.
Trump jabs the media on Air Force One
The investigators are seeking his testimony about two years’ worth of information about Mr. Cole’s contacts and conversations, as they try to identify his sources for the article about the operation in North Korea, the people familiar with the matter said. It is unclear if the administration has also sought Mr. Cole’s phone and email data, as it has done in other cases.
Last fall, Mr. Cole, along with a staff reporter for The Times, Dave Philipps, revealed the details of a Navy SEAL Team 6 mission in 2019 that went awry. The article described how the SEAL members killed two or three unarmed North Koreans who appeared to have stumbled upon the mission, a classified operation to plant a secret eavesdropping device near the country’s coastline. The Times’s account, published in September, drew on interviews with two dozen people.
The article also noted that the Trump administration did not notify key members of Congress who oversee intelligence operations, before or after the mission, an omission that may have violated the law.
The Justice Department has not subpoenaed Mr. Philipps, according to people familiar with the matter. He declined to comment.
Mr. Cole disclosed more details of his reporting on his Substack newsletter, stating that despite learning about the mission in 2023, he waited for months before making calls to find out more given the sensitive nature of the reporting.
The blogger was shocked, saddened and surprised to learn that President Barack Obama unleashed the Department of Justice to obtain“cellular, office and home telephone records of individual reporters and an editor” in 2013.
It’s of little consequence which Administration tries to stifle the Press. The fact of the matter is that the First Amendment is the bedrock of American democracy.
Under sweeping subpoenas, Justice Department obtained AP phone records in leak investigation
In a sweeping and unusual move, the Justice Department secretly obtained two months’ worth of telephone records of journalists working for the Associated Press as part of a year-long investigation into the disclosure of classified information about a failed al-Qaeda plot last year.
The AP’s president said Monday that federal authorities obtained cellular, office and home telephone records of individual reporters and an editor; AP general office numbers in Washington, New York and Hartford, Conn.; and the main number for AP reporters covering Congress. He called the Justice Department’s actions a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into newsgathering activities.
Six officials have been prosecuted, more than under all previous administrations combined.
The aggressive investigation into the possible disclosure of classified information to the AP is part of a pattern in which the Obama administration has pursued current and former government officials suspected of releasing secret material. Six officials have been prosecuted, more than under all previous administrations combined.
In a letter to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., the AP’s president and chief executive, Gary B. Pruitt, said that the Justice Department sought information beyond what could be justified by any specific probe and demanded that the government return the phone records and destroy all copies.
“There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters,” Pruitt wrote to Holder. “These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP’s newsgathering operations, and disclose information about AP’s activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know.”
Obama administration was marked by lack of transparency, access.
As part of its investigations into earlier leaks, the Justice Department revealed it had secretly subpoenaed the phone records of nearly two dozen Associated Press telephone lines and the emails and phone records of Fox News reporter James Rosen. The two cases, and language in the Rosen subpoena that suggested the journalist could be criminally charged for receiving the information, provoked widespread criticism. The backlash resulted in the drafting of revised Justice Department guidelines on press subpoenas and a renewed debate in the Senate of a federal shield law that would allow journalists greater protection for their sources. As the debate moved forward in the Senate, a federal appeals court rejected an appeal by New York Times reporter James Risen in his long-term effort to protect a confidential source, setting up a likely Supreme Court showdown.
Daily Beast 7.23.2026The First Amendment survives Wall Street Journal – 7.23.2026Wall Street Journal – 7.20.2026
Donald Trump lives in America in 2026. His attitude and actions are akin to Germany in the 1930’s.
While Trump is precluded from going as far as 1930’s Germany he is using his Department of Justice to intimidate and bully the media for exercising its First Amendment rights to publish.
This is a chilling assault on the foundation of 🇺🇸 American democracy
One of the first things the National Socialists did after assuming power in early 1933 was quash the free press. This action was followed by a series of book burnings.
The president is waging an across-the-board war against the First Amendment and its legal interpretations from the mid-20th century to today. – Huffington Post 3.13.2025
Excerpted from The New York Times – 7.20.2026
The Trump administration sought the phone records of several New York Times journalists and their relatives — including one reporter’s mother — in its effort to unmask the confidential sources who had provided information for articles about the security capabilities of President Trump’s new Air Force One jet.
The Justice Department told The Times late last week that it had issued subpoenas to third-party phone service providers seeking several journalists’ phone and text messaging records. That effort was in addition to the subpoenas issued on July 10 that sought to compel reporters to testify before a federal grand jury.
The government’s actions amount to an extraordinarily aggressive and unorthodox attempt by the Trump administration to unearth the confidential sources of independent journalists whose reporting had angered the president.
The additional subpoenas — which also sought information about calls and messages on the phones of two of the reporters’ spouses — were described in a motion filed on Saturday by lawyers for The Times, which is seeking to quash the requests. The motion was unsealed on Monday morning by Judge Arun Subramanian of U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
Top drawing: Herblock in Washington Post June 1971 during Pentagon Papers First Amendment battle. The Nixon administration tried to enjoin the New York Times from publishing the history of the Vietnam War. The Supreme Court upheld the Times right to publish.
“A little bit of courage is all we lack. So, catch me if you can I’m going back.” The Byrds
‘With a permissive referee running the show..” The Argentina 🇦🇷 “intimidation” was ultimately thwarted…Wall Street Journal – 7.20.2026San Francisco Chronicle – Ann Killion – 7.20.2026
Spain won its second World Cup in a extremely physical match with defending World Cup champion Argentina and Lionel Messi.
FIFA boss Gianni Infantino had to push Trump off the Victory stage – 7.19.2026
But how many will remember the game when, as is often the case, the Audience of One Donald Trump tried to steal the show.
Fortunately thousands of fans in attendance let Trump know what they thought of his party crashing obnoxious appearance.
Excerpted from NJ.com 7.19.2026
A coalition of artists, organizers and advocacy organizations was set to distribute 50,000 red cards to fans headed to MetLife Stadium for the World Cup final on Sunday to stage an in-stadium protest of FIFA and President Donald Trump.
The plan was for fans to hold up the red cards following the Spain-Argentina match when Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino presented the championship trophy to the winning team.
The red card protest was organized by SoundsGood Presents, along with several activist groups, including Contra-ICE, Make the Road New Jersey, 50501, People vs. The Machine, Way to Win and Movement Voter Project. Other local groups and U.S. Rep. Analilia Mejia (D-11th Dist.) were also part of the coalition.
Excerpted from Yahoo Sports!/Athlon 7.19.2026
Trump demands another World Cup in United States ‘immediately’
Donald Trump has declared that the World Cup should return to the United States “immediately” and claimed he would ask Fifa president Gianni Infantino to help stage another tournament during his presidency.
The hosting rights for next two World Cup have already been decided. The 2030 edition will take place in Morocco, Portugal and Spain, following opening matches in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay to mark the tournament’s centenary, while the 2034 tournament will be held in Saudi Arabia.
New York Times – 7.15.2026Washington Post – 7.11.2026
Donald Trump wants nothing more than to stamp out the First Amendment.
This wannabe dictator will use his final 925 days in the White House unleashing the Department of Justice and abusing the levers of presidential power to stifle, harass and prosecute his political enemies by any means necessary.
First it was former national security advisor John Bolton who published “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir.” Bolton plead guilty to one charge against him and is looking at a 2.5M fine and five years prison time.
The Trump administration issued subpoenas on Friday to several journalists for The New York Times, after the news outlet reported this week on security concerns involving President Trump’s new Qatari-donated Air Force One.
The smirking bully Trump
The Times journalists who received subpoenas included Julian E. Barnes, Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager and Eric Schmitt, who reported on Wednesday that Mr. Trump had departed Turkey on the old Air Force One as a security precaution at the urging of the Secret Service. On Thursday, The Times reported that the new Air Force One, a Qatari-donated Boeing 747-8, lacked some of the advanced security features of the older aircraft, including antimissile capabilities. Both articles cited sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security issues.
The subpoenas — which seek to force the reporters to testify before a federal grand jury in Manhattan on Wednesday — were an extraordinary escalation in President Trump’s efforts to threaten and intimidate independent news organizations.
In some cases, the subpoenas were delivered by federal agents who showed up at reporters’ homes.
The Times denounced the administration’s actions.
“The appearance of federal law enforcement agents on the doorstep of news reporters should shock the conscience of any American who believes in the Constitution and the press freedom it protects,” said David McCraw, The Times’s top newsroom lawyer, in a statement on Friday evening.
The blogger has been watching the World Cup since Day One on June 11th and is thrilled that the United States men’s team has moved to the group of 16 and will meet Belgium on Monday, July 6th in Seattle.
Despite all the joy of the game there is most definitely a political element. Deutsche Welle and The New Yorker have broken down and dissected the problems afflicting what is euphemistically titled The Beautiful Game.
Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 7.1.2026
US President Donald Trump was front and center when Chelsea lifted last year’s Club World Cup trophy
It’s a familiar and understandable diversion of attention from the issues that dominated the buildup. Many Argentine fans were denied visas to attend the tournament and see Messi make history, Vozinha’s mother was only granted a visa bond waiver to the country after her son’s heroics for Cape Verde, and those fans seen on TV are often the lucky few rich enough to afford outrageous ticket prices.
The decision to award US President Donald Trump FIFA’s inaugural Peace Prize last December, shortly before Trump started a war with tournament participant Iran, was reportedly a unilateral move by FIFA President Gianni Infantino and has further eroded trust both within and outside the organization.
Excerpted from The New Yorker POWER MOVE – Sam Knight – 6.8.2026
Gianni Infantino is both absolutely in control and strangely ill at ease. “He doesn’t trust many people,” a former official said. “His circle is very small.” Patrick Oberli, the Swiss journalist, has interviewed him four times. (Infantino declined to speak with me.) “In every case, I was faced with someone who was fearful,” Oberli said. “It was a peculiar feeling. It was as if he were sitting an exam.” In 2023, when Infantino was reëlected, unopposed, for a second full term as president, he opened a rare news conference with a rebuke for the waiting reporters. “I don’t understand why some of you are so mean,” he said. “Why? Why? I don’t get it.”
World Cup tracker – 7 15 2026
Infantino—now the president of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, which governs global soccer and owns the World Cup—was twelve years old and living in Brig, a small town in the Swiss Alps. Infantino’s parents were Italian migrants: his father worked on the night trains that ran under the mountains and across Europe, and his mother managed a kiosk at the railway station. Working-class Italians suffered discrimination in Switzerland during Infantino’s childhood. But the triumph of the Azzurri, the Italian men’s national team, in the World Cup helped to change that. It “allowed us to grow,” Infantino said in a speech, in 2021. “For me personally, I think that the 1982 World Cup was definitely the moment when the football virus . . . became part of my life and my body.”
Swiss Italians of Infantino’s generation have described the mounting euphoria of that summer as a feeling of riscatto—redemption and release. Brig is only a few miles from the Italian border. (Infantino calls his personality a combination of Italian creativity and Swiss precision.) After one match, he and his family crossed the border to the town of Domodossola to celebrate. There were no Italian flags on sale anywhere, so Infantino’s mother bought strips of red, white, and green fabric and sewed them together herself.
Brig is in the Upper Valais, a gaunt and conservative place where the inhabitants speak Walliser German, an Alpine dialect that many Swiss people find unintelligible. Six miles along the valley is Visp, the birthplace of Sepp Blatter, Infantino’s predecessor at FIFA, who, until Infantino entered the picture, was the most infamous soccer administrator of all time.
Gianni Infantino is both absolutely in control and strangely ill at ease.
Infantino will be unavoidable this summer. During the previous World Cup, in Qatar, directors of the official tournament feed were reportedly instructed to show him in the crowd once per match and not while he was looking at his phone. The geography of this year’s World Cup means that he won’t be physically omnipresent, but his imprint will be everywhere. “It’s safe to say that there’s no major decision that’s being made at this tournament without the direct involvement of Gianni,” a former high-ranking FIFA official told me. FIFA has staged two men’s World Cups under Infantino, but the 2026 edition is the first to be awarded and delivered during his tenure, and thus fully shaped in his image. He has already declared it to be the greatest of all time. Infantino’s messaging is as relentless as a 3-D printer’s. He is fond of the number eleven, which is the number of players on a soccer team. Most things are iconic. He likes to describe FIFA as “the official happiness provider to humanity.”
Top photo: American star striker Folarin Balogun will miss the round of 16 in Seattle after he was assessed a controversial Red Card in the USMNT win over Bosna-Herzegovina
A label which is unfair to Connie. If fighting for the working class, affordable housing and health care as Chair of the Board of Supervisors budget committee then we should all be labeled “Progressives.”
Connie is a practical political policy driven operative who, during her nearly six years as a San Francisco Supervisor, has fought for practical solutions to everyday problems.
Connie Chan has come a long way since she eked out a 125 vote victory to be elected a San Francisco Supervisor in 2020.
Six years later congressional candidate Connie is on the precipice of power having finished second in the June 2nd election. Defeating self funded centimillionaire Saikat Chakrabarti who spent nearly 10M of his own money.
Now, Saikat has endorsed Connie and committed himself, along with his bankroll and campaign staff, to push Connie’s effort. She will need all the help available because her opponent, State Senator Scott Wiener, is the errand guy for the deep pockets real estate industry.
San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan speaks flanked by Mayor Daniel Lurie to her right at a press event in front of San Francisco City Hall on Oct. 29, 2025.
Excerpted from The San Francisco Examiner 6.17.2026
In a potential boon to San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan’s congressional campaign, centimillionaire Saikat Chakrabarti has endorsed her candidacy and is converting his campaign committee to support her against state Sen. Scott Wiener in the race to succeed U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a Chakrabarti spokesperson said.
Chakrabarti — who finished behind Chan in the June 2 primary election despite having loaned or contributed nearly $10 million of his own money to his campaign — changed the name of his election campaign committee to the SF Solidarity PAC, an independent-expenditure committee, according to federal filings.
The former candidate had made offers to about 220 campaign employees who could work on Chan’s behalf as part of the independent effort, said spokesperson Nate Albee.
With almost all of the ballots from the election counted Monday, Wiener — a former San Francisco supervisor and a state legislator of nearly 10 years — won first place, with 95,720 votes, or 40.73%. Pelosi’s 11th Congressional District covers all but a southern chunk of The City.
Chan — who got Pelosi’s coveted endorsement on May 18, late in the primary race — came in second place with 69,823 votes, or 29.71%. Chakrabarti came in third with 41,990 votes, or 17.87%.
The results showed Wiener was dominant in most of The City, but Chan was particularly strong in the heavily Asian American Richmond and Sunset districts, according to data on the website Election Map.
Supervisor Chan and supporters at a reelection rally in 2024
In addition to the Chakrabarti endorsement Connie Chan recently announced she has hired a powerful Union organizer as her campaign director, Rudy Gonzalez.
Rudy Gonzalez’s Endorsement of Connie Chan
Rudy Gonzalez, secretary-treasurer of the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council (SFBCTC), publicly backed Connie Chan in her campaign for the U.S. House seat vacated by Nancy Pelosi heritagereview.com.
Gonzalez’s endorsement came in the context of a high-stakes Democratic primary race in San Francisco’s 1st district, where Chan was competing against state Sen. Scott Wiener and tech entrepreneur Saikat Chakrabarti. While the California Democratic Party had endorsed Wiener, Chan secured backing from a wide coalition, including labor unions, former mayors, and other community organizations Mission Local.
When asked about the endorsement, Gonzalez did not frame it as the result of a public feud between Pelosi and Wiener, but he did note that “I don’t know if they have a relationship to speak of,” implying a lack of personal connection between the two heritagereview.com. This comment underscored the political dynamics at play — Pelosi had bypassed her own party’s front-runner to choose Chan, and Gonzalez’s support aligned with the broader labor and progressive base that had rallied behind her.
Gonzalez’s role as head of the SFBCTC, one of the largest and most influential unions in San Francisco, gave his endorsement significant weight. His backing reinforced Chan’s position as a candidate with strong labor support, which has been a cornerstone of her campaign messaging occupysf.net.
In sum, Rudy Gonzalez’s endorsement of Connie Chan was both a labor union endorsement and a strategic political move, adding to Chan’s coalition of support in a competitive race.
Top photo: Connie Chan cited by San Francisco Police at a May Day 2026 protest at San Francisco International Airport
Trump’s anti-immigrant crusade may snag its biggest prize. The current star of the American soccer world.
Team USA stunned its fans and media pundits when it soundly defeated Paraguay4-1 in its opening World Cup match last Friday in SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. The most goals ever scored by America in a World Cup game.
The man responsible for this feat is Folarin Balogun, the 24 year old Nigerian who earned “Birthright Citizenship” when his pregnant mother was obliged to stay in New York City during her pregnancy. Medical authorities told her it was unsafe to return to Nigeria.Folarin was born on July 23, 2001and became an American citizen.
Now Donald Trump is attempting to take away Birthright Citizenship which was deemed legal in 1898. The Supreme Court heard arguments months ago and will soon issue its Decision.United States v. Wong Kim Ark – Wikipedia
United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898), is a landmark decision[3] of the Supreme Court of the United States which held that “a child born in the United States, of parents of Chinese descent, who, at the time of his birth, are subjects of the Emperor of China, but have a permanent domicile and residence in the United States, and are there carrying on business, and are not employed in any diplomatic or official capacity under the Emperor of China” became “at the time of his birth a citizen of the United States by virtue of the first clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.”[1]
Wong Kim Ark was the first Supreme Court case to decide on the status of children born in the United States to alien parents. This decision established an important precedent in its interpretation of the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.[3]
Wong Kim Ark, who was born in San Francisco, had been denied re-entry to the United States after a trip abroad, under the Chinese Exclusion Act, a law banning virtually all Chinese immigration and prohibiting Chinese immigrants from becoming naturalized U.S. citizens. He challenged the government’s refusal to recognize his citizenship, and the Supreme Court ruled in his favor, holding that the Citizenship Clause should be interpreted “in light of the common law”.
Excerpted from The Hill 6.15.2026
U.S. men’s soccer striker Folarin Balogun scored two goals in the Americans’ victorious opener of the FIFA World Cup on Friday, a performance that would not have occurred had his mother not traveled to the U.S. just before he was born.
Folarin Balogun scores for Team USA in the World Cup in Los Angeles – 6.12.2026
The performance has also put President Trump’s push to end birthright citizenship back in the spotlight. A challenge to Trump’s executive order ending the policy is before the Supreme Court.
Balogun’s mother, Florence Balogun, traveled to New York while she was seven months pregnant with the future soccer star in 2001. Florence Balogun and her husband, Ben Balogun, were born in Nigeria and lived in London at the time.
While Florence Balogun was at the airport to head back to England, airline employees refused to allow her to fly — saying she was too pregnant, according to an ESPN profile of her son from 2023.
As a result, she stayed with her sister-in-law in Brooklyn and gave birth to Folarin in America on July 3, 2001, ESPN reported. Nearly 22 years later, and despite coming up in the Arsenal academy and playing for England’s under-17, under-18 and under-21 teams, Folarin Balogun decided to play for the U.S. senior national team.
That decision paid off on his World Cup debut, as the 24-year-old scored the second and third goals of the Americans’ 4-1 victory over Paraguay on Friday. The win marked the most goals the U.S. has ever scored in a single World Cup game, and it’s one more than the three goals it netted in the entire 2022 tournament.
But if the Supreme Court were to rule in favor of the president on birthright citizenship, Folarin Balogun may not be able to play for the U.S.
The president’s executive order, which he signed on his first day back in office, stated that the 14th Amendment “has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States.”
Netanyahu needs to stop his whining and kvetching. Much of the World is totally disgusted with what this Guy is doing to the historic reputation of Israel.
Excerpted from The Wall Street Journal 6.15.2026
Israel Is Alarmed by Trump’s Deal With Iran
A man waves a Hezbollah flag in Tehran on Sunday. Vahid Salemi/Associated Press
Critics say the deal eases pressure on Tehran too soon, while others say it shows the war was a mistake
TEL AVIV—President Trump’s deal to wind down the war with Iran set off alarm bells in Israel, where top officials are wrestling with the consequences of easing the pressure on Tehran and the risks of opening a rift with the U.S. over the war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
It is a harsh comedown from Israeli hopes that the war would bring fundamental change to the region by toppling or crippling the Iranian regime and paving the way to diplomatic relations with more of Israel’s Arab regional counterparts under an American security umbrella, said Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to Washington.
The tension has been heightened by the lack of certainty about what exactly Trump has agreed to in the deal, which is expected to be signed later this week. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was urgently trying to set up a meeting with the president to sort out the competing issues, a person familiar with the matter said.
An Israeli strike over the weekend on Beirut in response to Hezbollah attacks on Israel almost derailed the agreement and set off a last-minute scramble by the White House and mediators to keep the deal on track.
Trump criticized the strike in an interview with The Wall Street Journal and said on social media that Israel had to stop its attacks across Lebanon. That was at odds with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement earlier in June that only required Israel to end the fighting if Hezbollah also stopped. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the U.S. was on the hook to end Israel’s attacks and aggression in Lebanon, state media reported.
Defying those claims, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the military would hold its so-called security zone in Lebanon indefinitely, saying it was needed to protect communities in northern Israel. He also said Israel would act independently to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons if necessary.
Israel is concerned that Trump has agreed to a deal that could provide Tehran with the financial relief it needs to rebuild its shattered economy but doesn’t include a commitment to turn over its enriched uranium.
Lee's Perspective 