Well, that ceasefire certainly didn’t last long. As you will see below, there was extensive fighting in Lebanon on Monday. Those that believed that the “memorandum of understanding” would somehow magically bring peace to the Middle East have already been proven wrong. In many ways, it is starting to look a lot like 1938 all over again. We handed control of the Strait of Hormuz to the Iranians, we promised to shower them with billions of dollars in cash, but they won’t even get Hezbollah to stop shooting. The reason why they won’t get Hezbollah to stop shooting is because they don’t want Hezbollah to stop shooting until they can pressure the Trump administration to force Israel to withdraw all troops from Lebanon.
But no matter how much pressure the Trump administration puts on the Israelis, the truth is that they aren’t leaving…
Israel will remain in the “buffer zones” it has created in Lebanon, Gaza and Syria, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday.
“We will remain in the security belts as long as it takes to protect our country,” he said.
Israel has expanded its presence in southern Lebanon in recent weeks.
Hezbollah has fired thousands of rockets into northern Israel in 2026.
So there is no way that Israel is going to withdraw and allow Hezbollah to move their rocket launchers all the way up to the northern border.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir made this very clear in a statement that he issued on Monday…
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Monday said their country will not withdraw from land seized in Lebanon after the U.S. and Iran agreed to an initial agreement extending their ceasefire.
“Trump’s agreement does not bind us,” Ben-Gvir wrote on the social platform X in a post translated from Hebrew. “Israel is not subject to the United States, and we are an independent and sovereign nation!”
“We must not compromise on anything less than the dismantling of Hezbollah, we must not withdraw from any territory that our fighters have captured and cleared of terror infrastructure, we must not return to a situation where thousands of terrorists sit on the fences of northern settlements, and certainly we must not remain silent for a moment in the face of fire directed at the State of Israel,” he later wrote.
And Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that if Iran attempts to intervene again “we will strike it with full force”…
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I are leading a clear policy that determines that the IDF will remain in the security zones in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza, without any time limit, to protect the border and Israeli communities from there against jihadist elements,” Katz said in his statement on Monday.
“We will not compromise on Israel’s security interests and the protection of our citizens, and we will not withdraw from the security zones,” he said. “If Iran attacks Israel because of the events in Lebanon, we will strike it with full force.”
Katz said Israel will proceed with its plan to clear the buffer zone of civilian residents, and then “all terror infrastructure, above and below ground, including the houses in the contact-line villages that served as terror outposts, will be destroyed.”
So this puts us back in the same position we were a few days ago before the “memorandum of understanding” was signed.
If Hezbollah fires more rockets into northern Israel, the Israelis are likely to bomb southern Beirut again.
And if southern Beirut gets bombed again, Iran could fire more ballistic missiles at Israel.
According to the Iranians, the “territorial integrity” of Lebanon must be respected if the memorandum of understanding is to succeed…
The spokesman reiterated that Lebanon and ending the war in that country are an inseparable component of the war-ending understanding between Iran and the US and said Iran has demonstrated both determination and seriousness on the issue and will continue to monitor developments carefully.
Addressing references to Lebanon in the memorandum, Baghaei said the word “Lebanon” appears three times in the text.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Baghaei added that the memorandum explicitly refers to ending the war in a way that includes Lebanon and emphasizes respect for Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The Iranians want all Israeli troops out.
So they are going to keep encouraging Hezbollah to keep shooting.
The Iranians are hoping that President Trump will put so much pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he will be forced to withdraw the troops.
But as I have already noted, that simply is not going to happen.
As a result, the fighting will continue with no end in sight.
On Monday, Hezbollah admitted that they had targeted Israeli forces numerous times…
Israel and Hezbollah continued fighting on Monday, with both the Israeli military and the Lebanese Shiite militant group claiming responsibility for strikes in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah said in two separate messages on Telegram on Monday that it had targeted Israeli tanks and vehicles with drones, rocket launchers and artillery shells. It said that clashes were “ongoing.”
In response, Israeli forces took out Hezbollah militants that “posed a threat”…
Hezbollah fired several rockets at Israeli troops in southern Lebanon a short while ago, the military says, one of several attacks carried out by the terror group today.
The IDF also confirms striking Hezbollah operatives who “posed a threat” to forces in southern Lebanon today.
According to the military, the rockets fired at Israeli forces a short while ago were intercepted by air defenses. No sirens sounded in any towns in Israel.
This isn’t what “peace in the Middle East” looks like.
Many pro-Iranian pundits are hoping that Israel will be more likely to give in to Iranian demands once Benjamin Netanyahu is no longer in power.
But I wouldn’t count on that.
Naftali Bennett is probably the most likely candidate to become the next prime minister of Israel, and he is pledging that “the clock for regime change in Iran will start” as soon as he takes office…
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett said on Monday that Iranian regime change will start when Israel has a new government.
“The clock for regime change in Iran will start as soon as the government in Israel is changed,” said Bennett. “The leadership is a disappointment.”
As long as the radical Shiite regime in Iran exists, this war will never be over.
The Iranians keep telling us that they have no intention of developing nuclear weapons, but many experts are absolutely convinced that the Iranians have been continuing their nuclear work at a secret facility that is very deep underneath Pickaxe Mountain.
By the way, the U.S. and Israel have not even attempted to bomb that facility for some reason.
Perhaps that is because it is so deep that bunker-busters wouldn’t even have a prayer of touching it.
The Iranians have been reinforcing tunnel entrances and strengthening security perimeters at Pickaxe Mountain, and top Iranian officials have been regular visitors.
If that facility is not being used for nuclear work, what is it being used for?
Basket weaving?
Let’s get real.
The Iranians have never changed.
We are being told that the head of the IRGC, Ahmad Vahidi, plans to “take the money” that we are offering to Iran.
But once he has the money, there is apparently a plan to “play the exact same game” with the Bab al-Mandeb Strait…
In 1938, Neville Chamberlain boldly proclaimed that he had achieved “peace for our time”.
Of course he was dead wrong, and we all know what occurred next.
Here in 2026, we are being told that the “memorandum of understanding” will finally bring peace to the Middle East.
If you believe that, I have a very large bridge on the west coast that I would like to sell you.
World leaders have been seeking to bring peace to the Middle East for decades, but that simply is not going to happen.
Iran and Israel are determined to destroy one another, and I am convinced that we will see some absolutely shocking escalations in the months ahead.
Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.
About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing. You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter. Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites. These are such troubled times, and people need hope. John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.
