A few weeks ago, in a public act at the White House, with Benjamin Netanyahu at his side, surprised, Donald Trump – the man whom the prime minister and his followers are convinced they have in their pocket – announced that the United States was opening direct, high-level talks with Iran.
The gap between what the U.S. president is doing and what Netanyahu wants received additional confirmation Wednesday when The New York Times reported that Israel had planned to strike Iranian nuclear sites in May but froze the proposal after Trump vetoed it.
The report said that an Israeli commando operation was considered and in the absence of readiness for a ground operation, an airstrike was planned but not conducted.
The report confirms what had been implied for some time in Israeli media outlets: Netanyahu planned to strike in the hope that Trump would give the green light and perhaps even pitch in to help.
But Trump, it turns out, sees the Israeli threats not as an end but as a means, a way to pressure Tehran into accepting a new nuclear agreement. From the president’s perspective, a military strike is a last option, to be used if and when the talks fail.
Nevertheless, on Saturday Reuters reported, citing Israeli sources, that a “limited strike” on Iran was still on the table, even without full coordination with Washington. That is complete insanity. Netanyahu has been calling for a strike on Iran for years, first with President Barack Obama and now with Trump.
This insanity led Netanyahu to make a bitter mistake when he caused the United States, during Trump’s first term, to withdraw from the nuclear agreement with Iran. Netanyahu has never admitted this mistake, and now Israel is again trying to dictate aggressive moves at a time when even Trump wants to exhaust the diplomatic option first.
It’s important to stress that there’s no such thing as “a limited Israeli strike” on Iran’s nuclear program. Any such military action would almost certainly deteriorate into an all-out war, with everything that it implies. It seems that even after the October 7 debacle, Netanyahu persists in his hubris and is liable to lead us into another catastrophe.
- Iran Report Addition (According to a previous article from Haaretz): Parts of the plans were previously presented to the Biden administration last year, two former senior Biden administration officials told Reuters. Almost all required significant U.S. support via direct military intervention or intelligence sharing. Israel has also requested that Washington help Israel defend itself should Iran retaliate.
The U.S.-Iran negotiations, which began in Oman last week and are continuing in Rome, even include direct meetings between senior officials. It is an opportunity that must not be missed.
Any agreement that puts restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program and places it under supervision is infinitely preferable to war. Despite all the uncertainty inherent in Trump’s leadership, the move should be supported. Diplomacy must be exhausted and irresponsible talk of an Israeli strike on Iran must stop. Even if Trump’s diplomatic move fails, Israel need not and cannot act alone.