The begged question here is, what are the consequences of lying? As others have pointed out, Israel has been lying since day one in the larger conflict; if lying about mass SA and Hamas being in every hospital they bomb hasn’t had any negative fallout, why would they care now? Conversely, the West will spin Iran as being a terrorist state regardless of what it does so it’s not like honesty will earn them any credit.

And on the matter of begged questions, this is really an Iran-Israel-America ceasefire situation. I think, for once, Trump was being honest when he tweeted “Now is the time for peace.” The Trump administration has no love for Iran, but I also think there’s some discontent at feeling like it’s Netanyahu taking the lead on things here instead of Trump. So they really thought a few missile strikes would cow Iran into backing down. Which means the U.S. is putting pressure on Israel to make it look like there’s been a ceasefire deal even if there really isn’t one.