Watchwords: Tuesday, June 23

The deal is signed, and the one army it binds is the one that wasn’t in the room when it was written.

The deal is signed now, and the fight is no longer whether there is one. It is who it binds and who it writes out — Iran got the oil, the open strait, the cash, and a standing seat on Israel's northern border, while Israel got a rulebook that narrows pre-emption to the moment a rocket is already in the air. Five soldiers were buried this week under the truce being sold as a ceasefire. Inside: the claims you will hear, the AIPAC 'dark money' line breaking in real time before the New York primary, and how to turn the page over instead of defending the document.

A signed document that buries Israeli soldiers and pays oil revenue to the side still firing is a fire-control order pointed in one direction, and the direction is Israel's.

The Israel Brief is the Mitzpe Institute's read on Israel and the region — most mornings, Sunday through Thursday. More at mitzpe.org.