{"id":1560,"date":"2026-06-29T23:10:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T23:10:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arabnewsmonitor.com\/2026\/06\/29\/israel-to-escalate-in-lebanon-after-failing-to-defeat-iran-max-blumenthal\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T23:10:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T23:10:51","slug":"israel-to-escalate-in-lebanon-after-failing-to-defeat-iran-max-blumenthal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/?p=1560","title":{"rendered":"Israel to \u2018escalate in Lebanon\u2019 after failing to defeat Iran \u2013 Max Blumenthal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The Grayzone editor-in-chief says Israeli strikes aim to undermine the fragile US-Iran ceasefire by opening a new front<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Israel will continue trying to escalate the conflict in Lebanon after failing to <em>\u201cbreak Iran\u2019s deterrence,\u201d<\/em> Max Blumenthal, editor-in-chief of The Grayzone, has said.<\/p>\n<p>Israeli officials have criticized the memorandum of understanding signed by Washington and Tehran on June 17, arguing that it does not serve the Jewish state\u2019s interests. Meanwhile, the IDF has continued striking what it describes as Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, in violation of the MOU\u2019s terms, risking the fragile deal.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cIsrael cannot do anything without US firepower, and the US was not willing to commit the amount of men and materiel to do what Israel needed,\u201d<\/em> Blumenthal said in an interview with Going Underground host Afshin Rattansi, aired on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Israel was <em>\u201ccompletely unable to break Iran\u2019s deterrence\u201d<\/em> and proved vulnerable to Iranian counterattacks, he added.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThey\u2019re going to focus on Lebanon, continue to seek to escalate in Lebanon,\u201d<\/em> Blumenthal said.<\/p>\n<p>\n        <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/642332-marandi-israel-expansion-lebanon-syria\/\"><br \/>\n            <span>READ MORE: <\/span>Israel planning permanent Lebanon occupation \u2013 professor (VIDEO)<br \/>\n        <\/a>\n    <\/p>\n<p>According to Blumenthal, Israel will also target dissenting voices in the US through the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, paid influencers, <em>\u201cor through some other more nefarious means.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Watch the full interview below:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Grayzone editor-in-chief says Israeli strikes aim to undermine the fragile US-Iran ceasefire by opening&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}