Trump Says Israel Called Off the Attack Too, and Israel’s Own Press Attributes That Line to Trump
The US president announced on Saturday night that a planned strike on Iran was on hold because a deal’s perimeters had been agreed. Every element of the Israeli half of that claim traces back to the same Truth Social post.
Late on Saturday 1 August, Trump wrote on Truth Social that “We have just been asked by Iran, and other Middle Eastern Countries, to hold off any attack in that the perimeters [sic] of a deal has been agreed to,” and that the arrangement “would include the Immediate, Complete, and Total OPENING OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT, and an end to Iran’s nuclear threat,” as carried by CBS News. CNN’s live file records a second line: the United States is “locked and loaded and ready to go against the Islamic Republic of Iran.” What was called off is harder to describe than the calling-off. CNN reported on Friday that Washington planned to strike as soon as this weekend, sourced to two US officials who said scope and targets were unclear and the plan could change. CBS reported that Israel and the US were preparing possible strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure and that Trump had not given the final order.
The Times of Israel headlined its Sunday liveblog entry “Trump says he and Israel have called off Iran attack after receiving assurance that deal is imminent” — the Israeli half of the announcement attributed to Trump, not to Jerusalem — under a sub-deck saying the agreement will “allegedly” fully reopen Hormuz and “end” Iran’s nuclear threat. The entry, by US bureau chief Jacob Magid, is timestamped 5:30 am on 2 August. Separately, Haaretz published at 12:21 AM on 2 August, credited to “Haaretz and Reuters,” a piece headlined “IDF on High Alert Ahead of Possible Major U.S. Strikes on Iran,” with a deck resting on the CBS report. The Times of Israel’s own editorial note on the same story cluster said a report placing Israel on its “highest alert” carried no sourcing, and stated that the IDF “has not issued any such information,” with the sentence continuing to Home Front Command.
Assessment: Two tests are available and neither has been run in public. Home Front Command civil-defence instructions are falsifiable: if they did not change, “high alert” was a briefing rather than a posture, and an Israeli outlet has now said in print that no military source stood it up. The second test is the deal itself. The UK House of Commons Library’s briefing on the US–Iran track describes a 60-day negotiating window, sanctions relief on oil exports and a $300bn reconstruction plan — none of which resembles the immediate, total opening announced on Saturday night. Distrust any Israeli confirmation that turns out to be a translation of Trump.