British media personality Piers Morgan and countless others reacted with shock Friday morning over a top Israeli official’s call for all of Lebanon to “burn,” a threat that stands at odds with Iranian demands and risks blowing up the tentative peace deal between Washington and Tehran.
“For every tear of an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers must weep. All of Lebanon must burn!” wrote Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir Friday in a statement published on social media according to an automatic English translation of the Hebrew-language statement.

The first point of the 14-point memorandum of understanding agreed to by Washington and Tehran included a provision that Israel terminate its military operations in Lebanon, with the Israeli military currently occupying around 10% of its northern neighbor’s territory. After four Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon were killed Thursday night, however, Israel pounded its northern neighbor with airstrikes, killing at least 18 and injuring 33.
Israel’s continued occupation and bombardment of Lebanon has already led to a delay in talks between Washington and Tehran, and critics, such as Morgan, flagged comments like Gvir’s as further evidence that Israel posed a threat to solidifying a U.S.-Iran peace deal.
“How can anyone still support this Israeli govt when psychopathic monsters like Ben Gvir are ministers in it, advocating genocide in Lebanon? Disgusting,” Morgan wrote Friday in a social media post on X.
Melissa Witte, a podcaster and political commentator, noted the significance of Gvir’s remarks given his prominent position within the Israeli government.
“This isn’t some random Israeli spouting off. This is the 3rd most powerful person in the Israeli government; the Minister of National Security,” Witte wrote Friday in a social media post on X. “America cannot keep funding these genocidal psychopaths.”
Even Brianna Wu, a former Democratic congressional candidate and fierce supporter of Israel, condemned Gvir’s remarks in harsh terms.
“You're a psychopath. If Free Palestine could create Israeli villains to drive their propaganda they would create you. And yet, you are somehow real,” Wu wrote in a social media post on X. “The best thing Jews could do to fight antisemitism would be banishing you to some third world swamp.”


