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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk with Aviva Insurance.
Chapter 2: What triggered the recent strikes between Israel and Iran?
We begin this hour with the news that Israel and Iran have traded strikes for the first time since a ceasefire was agreed in April. Iran's Revolutionary Guard has said the attacks are the beginning of a full week of continuous strikes. So is this the end of any ceasefire agreement? Well, Matt Fry is with us now, Channel 4 presenter. Good morning, Matt.
Chapter 3: How did Iran's Revolutionary Guard respond to the attacks?
Good morning, Claire.
Will you bring us up to speed firstly with what has been happening overnight?
So the Israelis started this latest round of fighting, which is in danger of breaking the ceasefire for good. When they attacked southern suburbs of Beirut yesterday, going after Hezbollah positions, the Israelis, of course, have also moved massively into southern Lebanon, 10 kilometres beyond the Litani River, which used to be the kind of dividing line between
Chapter 4: What is the significance of the ceasefire agreement?
for any Israeli control. So they've done this despite the fact that President Trump has urged them not to do so. And the Iranians have always threatened that if the Israelis encroach further on Lebanon and Hezbollah, they will then retaliate against Israel, which is exactly what happened yesterday. Two massive barrages of missiles overnight against Israel. No one was killed or injured.
All of it was shot down by the Iron Dome and various other defensive systems. But the extraordinary thing was that then Donald Trump went on the record in a sort of flurry of telephone interviews with colleagues, including The Financial Times and Axios saying, you know, I call the shots here. They don't call the shots, as in they being the Israelis.
If I tell them, I'm paraphrasing, if I tell them to stop firing or not to fire, then they will. You know, I'm more or less pleading with them not to retaliate to the Iranians because we're so close to getting a deal to open the Strait of Hormuz and end this war that, by the way, I started on the 28th of February.
Lo and behold, a few hours later, the Israelis do exactly what Trump asked them not to do, which is to fire a barrage of missiles against various targets, I think about six or seven targets inside Iran. Now we wait Iran's response. I mean, I think, you know, if you want to sum up the last few months, it has been three lessons which have been taught the American administration.
Chapter 5: How is the U.S. influencing Israel's military decisions?
The first lesson was a lesson in geography, thanks to the Strait of Hormuz. The second lesson was a lesson in the limitations of American superpower when it comes to a a resilient rump regime in Tehran with very few leaders or weapons left, but enough to create a lot of damage.
And the third lesson which it is learning now very painfully is that although it funds Israel and it supplies Israel with life-preserving weapons, America has no absolute power over Israel. This is a lesson that America keeps having to learn over and over again in the most painful ways. But arguably this one, because Trump has been so public about it, is the most painful lesson yet.
Yes, and it's hard to understand his strategy here, why he is being so public about the level of control that he has over Benjamin Netanyahu, when clearly he has very little control over him at all.
Well, this is something you could ask about anything that Trump does. I mean, Trump likes the sound of his own voice. He barely shuts up. He's incontinent with self. And what happens then, of course, is if you boast a lot and if you air everything out to full public view, people will judge you by it. Whether that's boasting that he can shut down universities or muzzle the free press or
or indeed win a war against Iran or control the Israelis. The minute you start boasting about stuff in public, it's out there and people will judge your words by the reality that you've helped to create. And that's, I'm afraid, where he falls down.
It is something that his advisers from his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, to Marco Rubio, when he can find his voice, which is not every day, have prevailed upon him ever so gently to stop doing. Put away your phone, sir. Please don't text in the middle of the night. Don't go on WhatsApp or on social media at four in the morning. It's really bad for you. It's bad for the country.
It's bad for the policy. But he's not listening. And of course, he is surrounded by a circle of sycophants And hardly anyone has the cojones to tell him the truth, let alone to tell him to shut up. And so off he goes.
So where is the relationship between the United States now and Israel? Because it feels as though it has fundamentally shifted and changed. What's your view, Matt?
Well, I think my view is that, excuse me, Claire, my view is that just as Donald Trump has come up against the limitations of his own power, Prime Minister Netanyahu has done the same when it comes to his own cabinet.
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Chapter 6: What lessons has the U.S. learned from its relationship with Iran?
That would be an absolute disaster for him. At the end of the day, he's a ratings guy. The ratings are really good. Everyone is tuning in because every day he comes up with something else that's outrageous. Sometimes it's backed up with actions.
sometimes it's just words words words words but we're all talking about him you could say we talk about him too much but he is making the weather because he isn't just a talker he's also the commander-in-chief of the world's most powerful nation and he uses his military power in order to make you know rhetorical points and vice versa so we can't not talk about him and so tonight we'll be talking about something else and tomorrow it might be cuba and the day after the world cup and then by the way let's not forget about the ballroom or you know the enormous triumphal arch
in Washington, which he's building for the nation and for himself, which will make the Arc de Triomphe in Paris look like a croquet hoop. I mean, these are all extraordinary things, but he keeps on delivering because that's what he wants to do. He wants us to be caught in his occupational, attentional economy, and we are.
We are.
Chapter 7: How do Israeli and Iranian perspectives differ on the conflict?
We are trapped in it, Matt, that is for sure. Thank you, Matt. Matt Fry there from Channel 4 News.
The Clare Byrne Show. With Aviva Insurance. Weekday mornings at 9. On Newstalk. Conversation that counts.