{"id":156913,"date":"2026-06-12T10:27:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T10:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/156913\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T10:27:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T10:27:15","slug":"understanding-the-12-hour-iran-war-why-israel-stopped-when-donald-trump-said-stop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/156913\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding the 12-hour Iran war: Why Israel stopped when Donald Trump said stop"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israel waged the Six Day War in June 1967. The 12-Day War with Iran in June 2025. And now, in 2026, the 12-hour war. Again with Iran<\/a>. Again in June.<\/p>\n

To help make sense of what happened, what the country experienced, and what it means going forward, it is useful to look at other examples.<\/p>\n

In a Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security Zoom briefing this week, former National Security Council head Yaakov Amidror and Eran Lerman, a former senior NSC official, turned to two seemingly unlikely examples: North Korea<\/a> and Google.<\/p>\n

No free lunch for Israel<\/p>\n

First, Google.<\/p>\n

The week\u2019s events made it clear to everyone in Israel that there is no free lunch. US President Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s support for Israel \u2013 the steps he has taken across the board over the years to assist the country \u2013 is not without a cost. And the cost is that he gets a say, a big say, in what Israel can and cannot do.<\/p>\n

\"USUS President Donald Trump reacts as remarks are delivered to reporters about his administration’s support for coal energy production, among other topics, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, US June 4, 2026. (credit: REUTERS\/JONATHAN ERNST)<\/p>\n

Never has Israel had a more supportive president in the White House. That\u2019s the upside. The downside? Never has Israel been so dependent on a US president.<\/p>\n

And this is where Google comes into play.<\/p>\n

Amidror said that he has two friends with startups in which Google<\/a> decided to invest. Both welcomed the partnership.<\/p>\n

But after a year, both realized that when Google is your partner, Google has something to say about how the company is run. Amidror said one of his friends disliked the arrangement and decided to sever the partnership and continue on his own.<\/p>\n

The other chose to stay with Google and figure out how to work with its input.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone thinks that when Google is your partner, you can neglect Google, I think they are making a big mistake,\u201d Amidror said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you have to make a strategic decision. Do you want to continue with Google and have some flexibility here, or do you say, \u2018Okay, I\u2019ll continue alone without Google?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Amidror said that when he posed that question to other friends, they all gave the same answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll my friends told me that if they had to make the decision, they would stay with Google. This is the situation of Israel today. We are with Google, and we have to take into consideration that Google is our partner.\u201d<\/p>\n

The US, to carry the metaphor, is Israel\u2019s Google. As a result, it will have a say in how we run our startup.<\/p>\n

At times, that smarts. At times, it is frustrating. At times, it limits your ability to make fully independent decisions.<\/p>\n

But it also carries enormous benefits \u2013 benefits that should not be overlooked in a moment of frustration over interference by the larger partner.<\/p>\n

Keeping the bigger picture in mind<\/p>\n

IT IS ALSO important to keep the bigger picture in mind. And what is the bigger picture? Iran\u2019s nuclear capabilities.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> often boasts that he has been sounding the alarm about Iran\u2019s nuclear program for more than 30 years. And he has. It has been his top priority.<\/p>\n

When history is written a hundred years from now, one of the defining elements of Netanyahu\u2019s legacy will be his efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n

That remains his overriding priority. Hezbollah, the Houthis, Hamas \u2013 all of that is secondary. What is key, what is essential, is preventing Iran from getting the bomb.<\/p>\n

Then along comes Trump and says, \u201cI\u2019m almost there. I\u2019m just a step away from getting the Iranians to concede on the nuclear issue in negotiations. The military pressure, the economic pressure, it\u2019s having an effect, and soon they will give it up in talks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you believe him \u2013 a president who has declared peace where there is no peace, victory where there is no victory, and the destruction of Iran\u2019s military capabilities when they clearly still possess them? Maybe not.<\/p>\n

But remember: he is Google, and Google has a say.<\/p>\n

Why Netanyahu bends to Trump’s demands<\/p>\n

This is why Netanyahu deferred this week to Trump\u2019s wishes and did not carry out the type of attack Israel had reportedly planned for Iran on Monday after the Iranian regime fired 11 ballistic missiles at Israel. Trump said stop shooting, and Israel \u2013 and Iran \u2013 stopped shooting.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

To give those negotiations a chance.<\/p>\n

Trump, being Trump, cast this in terms of his own omnipotence \u2013 at least when it comes to Netanyahu.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu, he has repeatedly suggested over the last few weeks in various forums and in various ways, will dance obediently to his tune.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s fine. He will do whatever I want him to do. He\u2019s a very good man,\u201d Trump told reporters on May 20.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, he told the Financial Times: \u201cI call all the shots. He doesn\u2019t call the shots.\u201d<\/p>\n

And on Tuesday, he told the BBC: \u201cIf I tell him to do something, he does it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those quotes will inevitably be trotted out by Netanyahu\u2019s political opponents during the upcoming election campaign as evidence that the prime minister is Trump\u2019s poodle and puppet.<\/p>\n

The widespread assumption, at least until recently, was that Netanyahu was Trump\u2019s preferred candidate. If that is the case, doesn\u2019t Trump realize that remarks like these could be politically toxic?<\/p>\n

Perhaps. But Trump, too, has domestic political considerations.<\/p>\n

According to Lerman, Trump has been stung by accusations from the Tucker Carlson wing of the MAGA movement that Netanyahu dragged him into the war with Iran.<\/p>\n

Comments such as \u201cIf I tell him to do something, he does it\u201d need to be seen in the context of rebutting the charge, increasingly common in some US circles, that the Iran episode is a classic case of the tail wagging the dog.<\/p>\n

While Lerman said Trump has been \u201cquite decisive\u201d in shutting down the anti-Israel and antisemitic elements of the MAGA landscape, he added that the president is nevertheless \u201caffected by the music and has responded to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which brings us to North Korea.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the best examples of bad diplomacy in modern history is the success of North Korea in becoming a nuclear power,\u201d Amidror said.<\/p>\n

One reason the US did not use force to stop North Korea, he argued, was South Korea\u2019s adamant opposition.<\/p>\n

And why was South Korea opposed?<\/p>\n

Because of the fear that, in the event of a US attack, North Korea would unleash devastating force against Seoul, which sits only 60 km. from the Demilitarized Zone.<\/p>\n

The North Koreans have thousands of artillery pieces and rocket launchers dug into the mountains along the border that, South Koreans feared, could be used in a massive retaliatory barrage on the capital. So they forcefully urged the US not to strike.<\/p>\n

Iranians learned ‘hostage strategy’ from North Korea<\/p>\n

The Iranians have learned more from the North Koreans than just how to build missiles. They have also learned the value of this \u201chostage strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

IRAN IS effectively holding the Gulf states hostage in much the same way North Korea held Seoul hostage \u2013 not only deterring overwhelming American action but also helping persuade Washington to limit Israel\u2019s attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Iranians are slowly building this same dynamic in the Gulf,\u201d Amidror said. \u201cWhat they are saying clearly is, \u2018If you do something to Iran, we will destroy the Gulf countries.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the table, these countries are saying to the Americans: \u2018If you are going to take action, do it to the end. Finish this regime. Destroy its capabilities totally. But if you don\u2019t finish the job, don\u2019t put us \u2013 the Gulf countries \u2013 in a very dire situation. Because if you go halfway, at the end of the day we will pay the price.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The Iranians have succeeded in creating a \u201ccoercive situation\u201d in the Gulf because the Americans are not ready to go the extra mile and totally destroy Iran\u2019s capabilities, Amidror said.<\/p>\n

Lerman, trying to make sense of Trump\u2019s often contradictory rhetoric \u2013 one day talking about obliterating Iranian civilization, the next about meeting the new Iranian leader \u2013 offered a riff on the well-known saying by the ancient Chinese strategist Sun Tzu: \u201cKnow thyself and know thy enemy, and you will not lose a hundred battles.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump version, he said, is: \u201cIf you don\u2019t know what you\u2019re doing, the enemy doesn\u2019t either.\u201d<\/p>\n

That said, Lerman added that Trump has shown a determination to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear state. And that, too, may stem from North Korea.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe experience of trying to get Kim Jong Un to give up on his nuclear project during Trump\u2019s first term \u2013 and failing \u2013 has taught him that these kinds of regimes have to be stopped before they have the bomb,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd on this, I think he\u2019s been very consistent. Either they actually give him something distinctly better than the deal [then-president Barack] Obama struck, or we may go back to square one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meaning, back to a full-scale war.<\/p>\n

Whether Trump is right about the negotiations is anyone\u2019s guess. What this week demonstrated, however, is something else entirely: that Israel\u2019s strategic dependence on the US is now so deep that when the president says stop, Israel stops.<\/p>\n

That may be frustrating. It may even be uncomfortable and humbling.<\/p>\n

But, as Amidror\u2019s start-up story illustrated, that is the price of having Google as your partner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel waged the Six Day War in June 1967. The 12-Day War with Iran in June 2025. And…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[41,38,1446,423,34,37,49,2246,51],"class_list":["post-156913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-donald-trump","tag-google","tag-idf","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-middle-east","tag-north-korea","tag-united-states"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116736664985325422","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}