Israel’s devastating June 13 attack on Iran surprised the world. Not because it happened, but because of when it happened. President Donald Trump’s decision to bomb Iran a week later caught the world off guard as well — also because of when it happened rather than that it happened.
Trump floated the idea of striking Iranian nuclear sites multiple times over a span of a few days. But he said he would decide within two weeks. Two days later, American B-2 stealth bombers flew into Iranian airspace, dropped 14 bunker-busting bombs — each weighting 30,000 pounds — on three nuclear enrichment sites in Iran, and zipped back home.
Ceasefire
But perhaps most shocking was Trump’s announcement on Monday. Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, he declared the war over. He even christened it with a catchy name, the “12 Day War,” not as short as another war the Israelis were involved in (the Six-Day War), but short nonetheless.
Not everyone welcomed the news. Fox’s Mark Levin, for example, did not. He suspects Iran’s nuclear program survived, a sentiment that grew wings Tuesday after legacy media outlets spread far and wide news of an intelligence leak making the same claim.
Levin’s media archenemy, Tucker Carlson, had the opposite reaction. His team stamped Tuesday’s daily morning newsletter with the subject line, “Thank God Donald Trump brokered a ceasefire. That’s the last thing Mark Levin wanted.” After the leak, he sent out another email in the afternoon, claiming the Deep State will stop at nothing to provoke a war.
The world learned of the ceasefire after the president announced it on his Truth Social account Monday evening. “It has been fully agreed by and between Israel and Iran that there will be a Complete and Total CEASEFIRE,” he decreed. The announcement was so out of the blue that, according to some reports, it “caught even some of Mr. Trump’s own top administration officials by surprise.”
Frustrated Plans
Over the next few hours, it looked as though the two warring countries were reluctant to oblige the American president. Israel and Iran were still lobbing missiles and bombs at each other. The Guardian reported:
Donald Trump has declared a ceasefire intended to bring an end to a 12-day war between Israel and Iran, but despite public acceptance of the truce, both sides continued to exchange fire on Tuesday morning. Air raid sirens sounded in northern Israel at about 10.30am, in response to what the Israeli military said was an Iranian missile launch, about two and a half hours after the ceasefire was first announced. Israeli reports said two missiles had been intercepted. Iran denied launching missiles after the ceasefire but Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said he had ordered immediate retaliation on Tehran.
This made Trump angry. He expressed his dissatisfaction with a rare public use of the “f-word” when talking to reporters. “They don’t know what the f- they’re doing,” he bawled. Trump aired further frustration to the media, specifically aimed at Israel. He said, “Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and they dropped a load of bombs, the likes of which I’ve never seen before, the biggest load that we’ve seen.” The Guardian was somehow able to measure Trump’s scolding as “the strongest-worded public rebuke of Israel of any US president in history.”
Trump then told the Israelis, as a stern father would a child, to knock it off. He posted on his Truth Social account in all caps: “ISRAEL. DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS. IF YOU DO IT IS A MAJOR VIOLATION. BRING YOUR PILOTS HOME, NOW!” And, apparently, Israel listened.
The Jerusalem Post corroborated that Trump indeed read Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the riot act. Israeli fighter jets were just minutes away from hitting 20 Iranian targets when Trump got on a call with Netanyahu and told him to put a lid on it. According to the report:
A source familiar with the details told The Jerusalem Post that Trump raised his voice at the prime minister, demanding, “Stop the attack.” The source noted that Netanyahu managed to say little during the call, though he repeatedly expressed gratitude to the US President. The source said, “It was a tough conversation between Netanyahu and President Trump. Trump viewed this as a personal achievement, and made it clear that no one — absolutely no one — would undermine it.”
The pilots pulled back on the attack and hit a radar station near Tehran as a compromise.
Problem Solved
Shortly afterward, Trump issued another update. This one informed the world that everyone will now behave. “ISRAEL is not going to attack Iran. All planes will turn around and head home, while doing a friendly “Plane Wave” to Iran. Nobody will be hurt, the Ceasefire is in effect! Thank you for your attention to this matter! DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,” Trump wrote.
By late Tuesday morning in the United States, it was beginning to look as if Trump’s peace “imposition” was starting to become reality. The Wall Street Journal reported:
Iran’s foreign minister later said his country would halt firing if Israel stopped its attacks. Israel confirmed the cease-fire on Tuesday morning, saying its war aims had been achieved.
In another round of Middle Eastern kabuki theater designed to preserve national pride, Iran’s foreign minister announced on state TV that Iran had fought until the very last minute.
The Times claimed to have spoken to three diplomats familiar with how the ceasefire came about. And based on that report, the world owes the Qataris a pat on the back for helping the Americans mediate peace:
Qatar intervened on behalf of the Trump administration and persuaded Iran to agree to a cease-fire with Israel.… The three diplomats said that Mr. Trump had told Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the emir of Qatar, that Israel had signed off on an American cease-fire proposal. They added that the president had asked that Qatar help bring Iran on board. The Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, then persuaded Iran to agree to the proposal in a call with the Iranian leadership, the diplomats said.
What was accomplished?
