Israel Threatens to Blow Up Trump’s Peace Deal With Iran

President Trump is declaring victory with his Iran deal, but Israel isn’t on board.

Israel is refusing to remove its IDF troops from Lebanon, even after the U.S. and Iran announced a memorandum of understanding that hinges on the withdrawal. The move could once again jeopardize any chance of a peace deal, as one of Iran’s primary demands is the end of Israel’s bombardment and occupation of Lebanon.

“Israel is not subordinate to the United States, and we are an independent and sovereign state,” said Israel’s right-wing National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has called for the flattening of Beirut and the kidnapping of Lebanese women and children. “We must not withdraw from any territory that our fighters have occupied and cleared of terrorist infrastructure,” he added. Defense Minister Israel Katz also declared that the Israel Defense Forces would remain in Lebanon “indefinitely.”

“The area will be cleared of local residents and all terrorist infrastructure, above and below ground—including the houses in the contact villages that served as terrorist outposts—will be destroyed,” he said.

These statements make President Trump’s Sunday announcement of a deal ending the war all the more tenuous, as a final deal isn’t scheduled to be signed until Friday. Trump already rebuked Israel on Sunday for bombing Beirut “on a special day when we are so close to a Peace Deal with Iran.”

Nearly 3,800 people have been killed in Lebanon since March 2, with nearly 12,000 injured and over a million displaced.

Secret Memo Exposes Trump Team’s Debate on Suspending Constitution

The Trump administration came dangerously close to getting rid of habeas corpus.

Last year, the Trump administration was considering suspending the constitutional right of habeas corpus, The New York Times reports.

Some officials pushing President Trump’s mass deportation agenda, chiefly White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, wanted to get rid of the key right, which compels the government to explain in court why it has detained a person. Miller’s goal was to prevent immigrants in government custody from receiving hearings or court orders blocking their deportation.

This idea alarmed others in the Trump administration, who saw it as legally weak and likely to be overturned in court. Among them was Will Scharf, a right-wing lawyer serving as White House staff secretary, who was the last person who saw paperwork before it reached the president’s desk.

In April, Scharf wrote a secret memo to........

© New Republic