Trump humiliates Netanyahu as US abandons Israel in Iran deal showdown - opinion

I must admit that until last week, I had never heard the word “eviscerated.”

Undoubtedly, if I were a surgeon, I would be familiar with it.

As a former lecturer in international relations at the Hebrew University and someone who knows a thing or two about the ups and downs of US-Israel relations since 1948, I am flabbergasted.

After two years and eight months of an on-and-off war on various fronts against a variety of enemies – all of whom would be delighted if Israel ceased to exist as a Jewish state – with several brilliant military operations and no significant political achievements on any front, we find ourselves in a rather horrifying never-never-land.

After several months of hoping for an improvement in the situation, we find ourselves feeling that everything is falling apart around us.

The agreement also requires us to act in a manner that most of us – both supporters and opponents of the government – feel runs counter to our national interests.

And to add insult to injury, all this has been accompanied by what was once upon a time considered unparliamentary language, pouring out of the US president’s mouth in our direction.

Nevertheless, I must admit that simultaneously with the unpleasant words, both Trump and vice president JD Vance have thrown in Netanyahu’s direction certain truisms that, when mentioned by his critics in Israel, are pooh-poohed or ignored.

For example, in order to hit a particular target, one does not need to bring down an entire building and thus cause the superfluous death of many innocent persons. Or that there are limits to what military force can achieve and that sometimes diplomacy ought to be resorted to instead.

Strangely enough, exactly seven years ago (June 2019), a poll published by the American Jewish Committee showed that 71% of American Jewry were dissatisfied with Trump’s conduct (in his first term), though their dissatisfaction was based on very different factors than ours today.

Last week, the US president announced that he has not yet decided whether to endorse Netanyahu in the approaching Israeli elections, which leads one to wonder whether he understands that elections in Israel are not personal and that Israeli governments are always coalition governments, of varying membership.

Under the circumstances, it is not clear whether Trump’s support would be helpful to Netanyahu, whose popularity has waned due to the turn of events.

It has been reported that Trump administration officials are secretly establishing communication channels with former prime minister Naftali Bennett and former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot.

Why is Trump angry or disillusioned with Netanyahu?

The main reason seems to be that the latter is not willing to support the MoU that Trump signed with Iran, though it should be noted that, for the time being, Netanyahu has not spoken out against it in order to avoid a further deterioration in US-Israel relations.

He has declared that Israel will not withdraw from southern Lebanon, as demanded by Iran – certainly not at this stage of the game.

Of course, nobody knows whether the MoU will lead to a permanent peace agreement between the US and Iran.

As things look today, such an agreement – if ever concluded – will not include any of Israel’s basic demands, including an end to Iran’s nuclear plans; the removal of its ballistic missiles and all its enriched uranium stockpile from Iranian soil; and an end to Iran’s financing and training of its anti-Israel proxies (such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis).

Israel is also unlikely to agree to giving up its demands for regime change in Iran – the only factor that can ensure true policy changes in a free Iran.

It is said that Trump and other members of his administration feel that Netanyahu misled the US to believe that regime change could be brought about by means of heavy air bombardments of carefully selected targets in Iran alone.

Some of Israel’s military leaders had warned Netanyahu that without “boots on the ground,” this could not be achieved; supposedly, Trump received similar warnings from his own experts.

But the end result is that Netanyahu is being blamed by Trump.

However, over the last weekend, the Iranians threatened to close it again unless Israel withdraws completely from Lebanon and stops its efforts to disarm Hezbollah.

Though Israel will certainly benefit, directly or indirectly, from the strait reopening, if and when that happens, it is worried by the prospect of Iranian assets – frozen back in 1979, after the Islamic Revolution, calculated to be worth today between $100 billion and $120b., – being unfrozen and returned to the Iranian government unconditionally.

We shall be much wiser in a few months’ time about where we are heading, though it will certainly be a nerve-wracking period, not only because of the uncertainty regarding Iran, the future of US-Israel relations in general, and American financial and military backing for Israel in particular, but also because of the unknown results of our approaching general elections.