Will Biden Sleepwalk Into a War With Iran?

Israeli leaders have been betting on a U.S.-Iranian war for a while. After this week, it might be at their doorstep.

This week has been especially chaotic for the Middle East. On Saturday, a Lebanese rocket killed 12 children and youth at a soccer game in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. (The victims were Syrian citizens with Israeli residency.) On Tuesday night, Israel took revenge for the rocket by killing Fuad Shukr, a commander in the pro-Iranian militia Hezbollah, along with two children.

A few hours later, a bomb killed Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas' political bureau and the lead negotiator with Israel, while he was visiting Tehran for the Iranian president's inauguration. Israel is widely believed to be the culprit. Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah have both promised to take revenge.

The same night that Shukr and Haniyeh were killed, U.S. warplanes rained down fire on an Iraqi militia base, killing four pro-Iranian fighters. An anonymous U.S. official told reporters that the militiamen were launching an attack drone that "posed a threat" to U.S. and allied forces. It was not clear whether the Iraqi drone was really aimed at U.S. troops—or Israel.

Soon it may not matter. The Biden administration affirmed again on Wednesday that it will help defend Israel in case of a conflict with Lebanon or Iran, as it did during clashes this April. And the administration has hinted before that it will get involved directly if Israel faces military setbacks in Lebanon. Israeli leaders may have been betting on exactly that outcome.

Unnamed "sources in the security establishment" told The Jerusalem Post that they could have assassinated Haniyeh in Qatar, where he usually lives. Instead, those sources explained, "the choice to carry out the assassination in the heart of Tehran was precisely because Haniyeh was under Iranian security responsibility, which placed Iran at the heart of the world's focus as a host, director, and supplier of terrorism."

In other words, killing Haniyeh was possibly meant to turn the Israel-Hamas war into an international crisis involving Iran and Israel's allies.

Months before the October 2023 attacks, Israeli policy makers had gamed out an Israeli strike leading to a U.S.-Iranian war. The Institute for National Security Studies, a think tank close to the Israeli government, ran a simulation in July 2023 that was eerily similar to the current escalation. The scenario began with an Israeli assassination campaign in Tehran, which provoked Hezbollah and Iraqi militias into attacking Israel and ended with direct U.S. attacks on Iran.

"Former top political and military leaders from Israel, the United States and a number of European countries took part in the simulation," reported the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

For years before that, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders had been demanding U.S. support for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. It's not hard to understand why. Khamenei has called Israel a cancerous tumor that needs to be excised, and Israeli leaders have in turn said that Iran is the head of an evil octopus, which must be cut off.

The attacks on October 7, 2023, by Hamas seemed to confirm the Israeli perception. Whatever role Iran did or didn't have in planning the attacks—the U.S. government believes that Iranian leaders were just as surprised as everyone else—Iran's allies immediately jumped into the fray, attacking Israel in the name of the Palestinian cause.

And plenty of American politicians want conflict for their own reasons. Immediately after the October 7 attacks, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R–S.C.) had called for bombing Iran whether or not there was evidence that Iran was behind the attacks. On Wednesday, he claimed to have intelligence that "Iran will, in the coming weeks or months, possess a nuclear weapon" and introduced a bill calling for war with Iran.

A conflict with Iran also helps Netanyahu alleviate some of the domestic political pressure on him. Before the October 7 attacks, he was facing protests over his proposal to defang the Israeli Supreme Court. And instead of rallying Israelis around Netanyahu, the attacks galvanized opposition, as many Israelis blamed Netanyahu for the security lapse and the failure to rescue hostages.

This week, those tensions exploded into an outright mutiny. After months of international pressure regarding the treatment of inmates at the Sde Teiman prison, Israeli military police began a probe into one of the most egregious cases. Nine soldiers had allegedly raped a Palestinian prisoner so hard that he was sent to the hospital with a ruptured bowel, a severe injury to his anus, lung damage, and broken ribs.

Police detained some of the accused soldiers, and Israeli nationalists accused the government of betraying its troops. Nationalist rioters, including members of parliament, stormed both Sde Teiman and the Beit Lid military courts in support of the accused rapists. The army was forced to pull three battalions away from the Palestinian territories to guard the courthouse.

Killing Shukr and Haniyeh, then, was a good political bet for Netanyahu. At the very least, Netanyahu got to drown out headlines about the Sde Teiman riot with a dashing military victory. And if Iran hits back hard enough, then Israel may be able to get the world's superpower to fight Israel's greatest enemy.

But a full-on U.S.-Iran war would be a disaster for the region and for Americans. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie warned The New Yorker in December 2021 that Iran has missile "overmatch in the theatre—the ability to overwhelm" U.S. air defenses. American troops would face attacks in Iran, Iraq, and Syria, and a few well-placed Iranian strikes on Tel Aviv or Abu Dhabi could do serious damage to the world economy.

It would be a disaster of the Biden administration's own making. Soon after the October 7 attacks, President Joe Biden embraced the "bear hug" theory of diplomacy. By giving Israel public reassurances and unlimited military support, the theory went, Biden would earn enough goodwill from Israelis to keep their war contained and eventually broker an Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire.

Instead, the bear hug has turned out to be a sleepwalk. Netanyahu has taken U.S. support as a license to continue expanding the conflict. And the Biden administration seems to be at a loss for words about the latest escalation. Asked what impact the assassination of one side's chief negotiator would have on ceasefire negotiations, Secretary of State Antony Blinken played dumb.

"Well, I've seen the reports, and what I can tell you is this: First, this is something we were not aware of or involved in," Blinken told Channel News Asia. "It's very hard to speculate, and I've learned never to speculate, on the impact one event may have on something else. So I can't tell you what this means."

Comments

[MasterThief]

So...an Iranian asset pushes terrorism into another country and the problem is that the terrorist got hit back?
Another worthless contribution from Petti

[Rob Misek]

He “sleepwalked” into a genocide in Gaza.

[DesigNate]

Refuted!

[Rob Misek]

Jews profit by furthering their own interests at the expense of everyone else.

The US involvement in the Middle East conflict began when Rothschild entered an agreement with Britain to fool the antiwar US into joining WW1 in exchange for the promise of Palestine via the Balfour Declaration. Something nobody had any right to do and cost millions of lives by extending the war long after Germany offered a peaceful return to pre war conditions.

Then unhappy with the slow movement on their theft of Palestine, Jews organized global boycotts of Germany in 1933 to intentionally force them into WW2 and hasten Jewish immigration to Palestine. Again destroying millions of lives to serve only Jewish interests.

Between 1900 and 1945 Jews using newspapers around the world had falsely claimed to be victims of holocausts using the cabbalistic number of 6 million deaths, on no less than 166 separate occasions.

After a successful WW2 propaganda campaign Jews stole Palestine in 1948 referencing the Balfour declaration and using US and British aid to start the Middle East conflict which rages to this day.

Now after the US has supported 76 years of Israeli occupation, apartheid and terrorism of Palestinians Israel itself is committing a holocaust in Gaza again with unrestricted allied assistance.

Israel is on trial in the highest court of the UN for committing genocide. They have refused to stop their offensive of genocidal destruction despite being ruled to by the UN. The UN has ruled that Israel needs to return the land to the Palestinians they stole it from and pay reparations. Again they refuse.

Israel and every nation providing them assistance are violating their signatory obligations to the United Nations genocide convention.

What kind of lying wastes of skin, sign, ratify and renege when caught in the act? Kol Nidre liars.

The Middle East conflict has always been about the Jewish selfish desire to steal Palestine.

Through the secretive satanic channels of freemasonry, Jews pull government strings around the world.

Don’t feel bad about being fooled by these satanic liars. They’ve been perfecting deception and entrenching it in their religion and society for millennia.

It’s why they must have secret societies whose members choose greed over ethics and self respect. It’s also why they end up being persecuted by the victims of their behaviour wherever they live, throughout history.

Look at the fat Jewish lesbian mocking Christianity at the Olympic opening ceremony. Satanism on full display.

If it wasn’t for free speech on global social media, few of us would recognize the truth.

Choose! The red pill or the blue pill.

[TrickyVic (old school)]

""Don’t feel bad about being fooled by these satanic liars. ""

Sounds like something the religious right was saying about that heavy metal music in the 80s.

[Rob Misek]

Just a few of the hundreds of jewspaper articles by Jews long before WW2, falsely claiming to be victims of holocausts and every other possible tragedy to beg for money and entitlements, Palestine, like the lying wastes of skin who fake cancer on go fund me websites today.

Tell me once again that Jews don’t employ fake news to fool Americans and further their own interests at the expense of everyone else.

“ Life for six millions in the shadow of death!…Six millions mean what?…Six million souls, old men, old women, and little children in Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Palestine, Glaicia, Turkey, Syria, Roumania, Greece, and Bulgaria are in imminent danger of starving to death this winter….The responsibility of maintaining life in these six million sufferers rests upon every man and woman in the United States…Helping the Jews in their extremity is not helping the Bolsheviks,” the speaker emphatically declared.”

1919 — Schenectady Gazette, October 16th, 1919, page 15

“Today 6,000,000 Jews Are Facing the Darkest Days Ever Known in the Long History of the Race.”

1919 — Titusville Herald, October 18th, 1919, page 4

“… Jewish Relief Fund…Contribute Today, the Last Day and Help Save From Death Six Millions of Starving People.”

1919 — San Francisco Chronicle, October 19th, 1919, page 18”

Six million Jews in Poland, Lithuania, Galicia, Palestine, Turkey and Siberia are dying of starvation….These six million despairing souls are totally dependent on American generosity for the bare necessities of life.”

1919 — The Galveston Daily News, April 5th, 1919, page 5

AMERICANS APPEAL FOR JEWISH REFUGE. The petition, in expressing the opinion of enlightened Christian leadership in the United States, favoring a larger Jewish immigration into Palestine, stressed the intolerable sufferings of the millions of Jews in “the European holocaust.”…to save these unfortunate millions from total annihilation…”

1936 — The Jewish Western Bulletin, June 2nd, 1936, page 3

“Great Britain has it within her power to throw open the gates of Palestine and let in the victimized and persecuted Jews escaping from the European holocaust.”

1936 — The Montreal Gazette, August 8th, 1936, page 5

Judge Lewis urged American members of the race to swing moral and financial powers into the channels of evacuating some 6,000,000 Jews to Palestine.”

1938 — Turtle Mountain Star, Rolla, North Dakota, October 6th, 1938

“Five or six million Jews, uprooted by dictatorship and tossed about by economic storms, may have to depend upon the development of the Holy Land, under British mandate, as a solution to their difficulties. But they face the hostility of the Arabs living there, whose economic and religious interests conflict with theirs….protects the settlers from the raiding Arabs….The Arabs Are Coming!…The dreaded Mohammedan raiders have been sighted by a neighbor settler…”

1938 — The Times, November 22nd, 1938

[JasonT20]

No, the problem is that Israel's response to its terror threats could pull us into a huge war with Iran. As the article claims, Netanyahu could be calculating Israel's response to Hamas and Hezbollah's actions based on the U.S. getting directly involved in the case of a wider war that doesn't go entirely Israel's way. Put simply, Israel may be acting much bolder than it would if it would have to do all of the fighting (and dying) itself if it ends up in a war with Iran and/or Hezbollah in Lebanon.

It obviously sucks that Iran continues to engage in proxy terrorist acts against Israel and others without having to face direct strikes against its military and infrastructure in direct proportion to what Israel and others suffer at the hands of Iran's proxies. If international relations was about morality, things would be a lot simpler. Not necessarily better, though.

[mtrueman]

This is a careful what you wish for comment. You want Iran to pay for the crimes of its proxies? How about America paying for Israel's crimes? Destroying hospitals, schools, murdering innocents, and more besides.

[VinniUSMC (Banana Republic Day 5/30/24)]

Eat a grenade Nazi shit-eater.

[TrickyVic (old school)]

No criticism for the use human of shields?

[mtrueman]

You want America to pay for Israel's use of human shields? Very generous of you. Or do you want something else?

As JasonT20 implies, it obviously sucks that America continues to engage in proxy terror attacks against Palestine while not having to face direct attacks on its people or infrastructure.

[JasonT20]

You want Iran to pay for the crimes of its proxies? How about America paying for Israel’s crimes?

Look, I've been highly critical of Israel's actions toward Palestinians, but I'm also not going to play false equivalence with anything Israel has done and the actions of Hamas or Iran.

You also missed what I intended with that last comment. It would certainly be a simpler world if every nation got what it "deserved" in terms of retribution for its actions or the actions of its proxies, but it would not be better. A better world is one where every nation faces some effective consequences for its own moral failures. And in that better world, those effective consequences are enough to discourage future immoral actions without costing even more innocent lives, including civilians in the offending nation.

[AT]

that doesn’t go entirely Israel’s way.

You realize that the only reason Hamas exists in Gaza at all is because Israel let them, right? They’re not afraid of Hamas. They’ve been mopping the floor with them for almost a year. They just killed their leader because it was easy peasy for them to calculate his moves and put a bomb under his bed and then just wait it out.

Here’s the thing about the Muslims, Jason. They’re stupid. Because their singular purpose in existence is jihad against the infidel, they’ve got a tunnel vision that blinds them to everything else. That’s why their only strategy ever is cowardly attacks on soft targets, while cowering behind our reticence to cause collateral damage.

Israel has nothing to fear from Hamas or Hezbollah or Al Qaeda or Al Nusra or anyone else. If they really wanted to, they could systematically kill them all – and they’d probably get it done pretty quickly. But they don’t, because they’re better than that. At least until they’re provoked.

If there’s any hesitation over Iran, it’s only because they know the Russians and the Chinese have their fingers in that sandbox. And the reason they want American (and to a lesser extent Western Europe’s) aid is because we’ll keep Russia/China at bay while they purge Iran – which is long past due.

No joke, one of the things I hope I see one day before I die is live television coverage of a mushroom cloud blooming in the skies over Tehran. It’s one of those things we’ll get first glance of, and calmly exhale and think to ourselves, “Finally.”

[mtrueman]

"They’re not afraid of Hamas. "

Maybe not. They can deal with Hamas. In battle or the negotiating table. They're afraid of American opinion turning on Israel. That's one gravy train they don't want to see derailed.

"It’s one of those things we’ll get first glance of, and calmly exhale and think to ourselves, “Finally.”

Except Iran is a lot bigger than Tehran and has enough weapons to burn down Tel Aviv with or without nuclear weapons. And Iranians don't pull their punches when it comes to war. They used children as human mine sweepers in the war with Iraq. Israel can't even bring itself to conscript religious Jews or Muslims into their military.

[AT]

No. Like I said, muslims are stupid cowards. The would go scurrying to their bolt holes while Israel systematically burned Iran’s presence off the face of the earth. And then, whenever whatever is left of Iran peeks their chicken necks out, Mossad would be there to shove a spike in their brain.

You don’t get it, mtrue. Israel does not screw around. The only reason October happened is because – like America – they are patient and tolerant and keep praying for the best of their enemies.

Their enemies never deliver. Which means the good guys have Plan B ready and waiting. If Iran has any brains at all, they will pull back and subordinate themselves to Israeli conquest. If they don't, and they continue their aggressive belligerence - well, like I said, I hope I get to see that mushroom cloud in my lifetime.

And, in case you were wondering – as far as America is concerned, our Hamas is the LGBT. And like Hamas with Israel, LGBT is pushing the limits of tolerance. It’s going to be open season on them soon, and they have nobody to blame for that but themselves. It could have been live and let live – but jihadis ‘gon jihad.

[mtrueman]

"Like I said, muslims are stupid cowards."

You're not the only one saying this. It's common for Israelis to use even more dehumanizing language to describe their neighbors. Cockroaches, vermin and the like. Look at the pickle their bigotry has backed them into.

[AT]

Stupid and Cowardly are not dehumanizing.

They mean that the humans being described are not intelligent and show no courage. The record is replete with this - everything from killing themselves in order to kill others, and both targeting and cowering behind people who are likely to be in no position to immediately defend themselves.

[mtrueman]

“Stupid and Cowardly are not dehumanizing. ”

Then you’ve obviously got to bump up your game if you have any desire to keep up with your Zionist friends. Your weak tea 'cowardly and stupid' would never cut it at Tel Aviv cocktail parties.

[AT]

Or you could just have the slightest iota of intellectual integrity and admit that you were wrong.

[mtrueman]

"intellectual integrity"

You're the one claiming that Muslims are stupid and cowardly. And then you whine about my lack of intellectual integrity? You're a self parody, AT.

[AT]

They are stupid and cowardly. And I explained why.

You claimed that was "dehumanizing," indicating that you don't know what the word "dehumanizing" means.

But rather than just admit that, like a man with integrity, you obfuscate and continue peddling your neo-nazism.

[JeremyR]

Iran surprised that its proxies that it armed and controls, attack Israel, their proxies sole reason for existence.

[charliehall]

The analysis is really stupid. What the recent assassinations by Israel prove is that Iran cannot protect its proxies and assets. And the people Israel killed absolutely deserved their fate.

[Kyfho Myoba]

Yes, this analysis is quite superficial, but yours is even dumber. The recent assassinations by Israel have not proven anything other than Iran doesn't need to protect its proxies and assets. Their proxies have enough leadership depth to handle whatever Israel has to dish out. Do you remember Nasrallah's predecessor (killed by Israel)?

[Sarah Palin's Buttplug - Jan 6 = 9/11 (same motive)]

Bibi really misses the Bushpigs. They were his useful idiots.

He knows Donnie is his only chance for a US-Iran War. But Donnie is not quite as stupid as Dumbya was. Desperate times for Bibi.

[But SkyNet is a Private Company]

Yes, the same Trump who refused Thoroughly Modern Millie’s plan to kill Iranians in response to an unmanned drone being shot down. He’s the best shot at war.

You really are an imbecile. A ranting syphyllitic imbecillic knownothing

[Sarah Palin's Buttplug - Jan 6 = 9/11 (same motive)]

So you agree with me.

Donnie is not as stupid as Dumbya was.

We are saying the same thing on this topic. No sane president is going to repeat the Iraq War on Israel’s behalf.

[Mother's Lament]

Tell us about your views on the Jews iSrAeLieS, Buttplug.

Are the Elders of Zion "tricking" the US into fighting Iran again?

[VULGAR MADMAN]

Has he claimed they hacked his account yet?

[XM]

Buttplug is right, if Trump was still president Ukraine, Israel and Gaza would be mostly at peace. I bet Bibi was happy that the democrats took over government, because he really wanted a war with Iran.

[JasonT20]

Buttplug is right, if Trump was still president Ukraine, Israel and Gaza would be mostly at peace.

You can play all the "if Trump was still president" games you'd like. It is impossible to actually predict how Putin and Hamas would have behaved, given how erratic and incoherent Trump's foreign policy was.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Yeah all of that peace and prosperity was terrifying.

[JasonT20]

There was peace, if not prosperity, in the mid-1930s. There was peace and prosperity (for the U.S. and Western Europe) in the 1990s. Does that mean that U.S. foreign policy was excellent throughout those times? I would say not, given what happened next after both periods.

Success in foreign policy is success at the long game. What happens during a President’s term is only part of the answer. What is set up for the next President, and the one after that, and the one after that, is the other part.

Trump’s big foreign policy actions:

– Moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, inflaming existing tensions between Israel and Palestinians
– Making the deal with the Taliban to withdraw from Afghanistan while shutting the Afghan government out of those negotiations
– Withdrawing from Syria after Kurdish militias helped defeat ISIS, leaving the Kurds at the mercy of Turkey that viewed them as a threat. Over 100,000 Kurds fled their homes and many ISIS fighters that had been captured by those militias escaped.
– Constantly questioning the value of NATO to U.S. interests

Trump also got to brag about the “love letters” between him and Kim Jong Un after calling him “litter rocket man” early in his term, but they never translated into anything productive. Meanwhile, Trump vocally told the world that he believed Vladimir Putin when Putin told him that he didn’t interfere in the 2016 election, rather than believing the conclusions of basically everyone else in the U.S.

Trump was ineffective at foreign policy because of who he is. He can’t talk in broad, contentless diplomatic language when that is what is needed, since he can never keep his surface thoughts to himself. He is too thin-skinned to be patient when an adversary is being difficult and too susceptible to flattery. He doesn’t see the long-term value in building alliances that don’t have immediate payoffs, because he’s got a short attention span himself. And he never studies anything in depth, which is a prerequisite for effectively dealing with other nations on complex problems.

[edit]Oh, and he blew up the Iran nuclear deal without any plan on what to replace it with. Given what Iran has done since then, I would definitely say that he failed to advance our interests there.

[DesigNate]

Completely ignores that Biden is in charge and barreling ahead towards open war with Iran.

Never change shrike.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Don't worry. Kamala has Iranian backed advisors.

https://nypost.com/2024/08/01/us-news/gop-lawmakers-probe-kamala-harris-adviser-for-connections-to-iranian-influence-operation/

[charliehall]

Don't worry. Trump has in-laws who aren't just backed by, but are in fact directly PART of Hezbollah's coalition in Lebanon.

https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/elections/2024/trump-allies-hope-his-daughter-tiffanys-father-in-law-can-help-flip-arab-american-votes-in-michigan/

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Didn’t take you as a racist anti immigrant.

From your link:

One of Donald Trump’s emissaries to Arab Americans is a Lebanese-born businessman who moved to Texas as a teenager, speaks Arabic, English and French, and recently joined the Trump family when his son married the former president’s younger daughter.

How many degrees of Hezbollah did you need to get there?

himself as a “friend” of Sleiman Frangieh, a Christian politician allied with the Shiite party and the militant group Hezbollah. Frangieh is currently Hezbollah’s endorsed candidate for Lebanon’s presidential vacancy

What a grand bald assertion as your evidence lol.

I mean hezbollah isn't exactly Christian friendly.

It listed the Ayatollah Khomeini as the leader whose "orders we obey"; called on Christians to "open your hearts to our call" and "embrace Islam" and noted that "Allah has ... made it intolerable for Muslims to participate in ... a regime which is not predicated upon ... the Sharia"; explained that Israel is "the vanguard of the United States in our Islamic world".[9]

[mtrueman]

"I mean hezbollah isn’t exactly Christian friendly. "

Check your facts. You're in for a little surprise.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

I just posted the facts. They want Christians to unite to come under the Muslim banner dumdum

[mtrueman]

Keep checking. I promise you're in for a surprise.

[JasonT20]

This is probably what mtrueman is talking about.

https://www.hoover.org/research/religion-and-politics-lebanon-case-christian-alliance-hezbollah

[R Mac]

At least we have the return to normalcy.

[Don't look at me!]

Adults in charge!

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

"Sleep-walking"? Is that what we call policy implementation by unelected power figures who ignore a mostly comatose old man?

[charliehall]

Biden is clearly in charge of US foreign policy here, knows what is happening, and both he and Netanyahu were elected. Biden may not want Netanyahu to start a war with Iran but he doesn't control Netanyahu, nor vice versa, contrary to all the anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists.

[TrickyVic (old school)]

I've seen plenty of evidence Biden is not in charge of anything.

[mtrueman]

It's not relevant. Anyone who rises to the top of the American political system is going to be in the bag for Israel.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Ha ha, good one!

Now explain why the DNC really flushed Joe.

[mtrueman]

"he doesn’t control Netanyahu, nor vice versa"

They don't need to control one another. They share the same vision: an outpost of Western civilization in a desert of savagery. The Germans and Brits are also on board, as well.

And Biden is not the issue. Choose anyone near the top of the tree in American politics, and the results would be identical.

[ravenshrike]

Yep, Pudding Cup knows what’s happening with his foreign policy. Which is why he knew that 3 of the 4 Americans returned in the recent prisoner swap were captured during his presidency. Wait… no… given his comments on the matter he doesn’t know jack fucking shit.

[sarcasmic]

Biden war bad. Trump war good.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

*yawn*

[Chipper Chunked Chile Con Congress (ex NCW)]

Not real sarcasmic. I can see this one.

[DesigNate]

Came pre-greyed. Guessing it’s the spoofer.

Sad.

[R Mac]

All war bad.

President that never started any wars, negotiated an end to a decades long war, tried to withdraw troops from another war, and refused to let his generals and advisors convince him into a war, good.

President that’s been in DC for half a century and supported every war during that time, and is a puppet that allowed the MIC to get the war machine cranked back up to full blast while president, bad.

Sarc that can’t tell the difference, retarded.

[charliehall]

"negotiated an end to a decades long war"

"agreed to surrender a sovereign nation to terrorists who had supported a direct attack on the US"

There, fixed it. It is easy to avoid war if you run up the white flag at every provocation. Trump would have offered to surrender Hawaii to the Japanese on December 8, 1941. And probably the rest of the Pacific Fleet that hadn't been destroyed on December 7.

[TrickyVic (old school)]

""Trump would have offered to surrender Hawaii to the Japanese on December 8, 1941."'

There once was an Iranian general who would disagree.

[Don't look at me!]

Charliehall, the dumbest fucker alive, now has a war boner.

[R Mac]

You can’t be this stupid, so TDS is the only conclusion.

[Chipper Chunked Chile Con Congress (ex NCW)]

I'm willing to accept that it could be both.

[DesigNate]

Didn’t have you as a warmongering neocon on my bingo card.

[Moonrocks]

Trump war

Name one.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

War on sarcs sobriety.

[Social Justice is neither]

There was his war on civility and polite tweets, his war on net neutrality and most odious of all was his war on red tape. I’m sure I forgot a few as we all died several time in the world wars under his administration.

[Eeyore]

Writers keep assigning agency to a person with none.

[charliehall]

"Netanyahu has taken U.S. support as a license to continue expanding the conflict."

There has long been an anti-Semitic undercurrent to much of the Libertarian movement. This brings it out into the open.

Netanyahu did not attack innocent Israelis at a music festival.
Netanyahu did not attack innocent Druze (who aren't even Israeli) in the Golan.

Gaza has not been occupied since 2005.
Lebanon has not been occupied since 2000.

I guess the US should not have expanded World War II after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. After all, it wasn't part of the US yet.

I guess the US should not have expanded World War II after Hitler and Mussolini declared war on the US four days after Pearl Harbor. After all, their carnage had not been directed towards Americans.

And apparently Israel is the one country not allowed to defend itself against attack. Like I said, anti-Semitism.

Some wars have to be fought. America First will side with Iran and Russia, though.

[mtrueman]

"Netanyahu did not attack innocent Israelis at a music festival."

His military killed plenty of Israelis at a music festival. And worse still, despite ample warnings from multiple sources that Hamas was up to something, Netanyahu did nothing to cancel the festival, or tell the attendees that he had reports that Hamas was about to attack.

"Gaza has not been occupied since 2005."

It's blockaded and shut off from the outside world. One of the reasons why the Palestinians are upset and rebellious. The world's largest concentration camp, if you will.

"America First will side with Iran and Russia, though."

America First will side with you and the rest of the Israel First crowd. Two peas in a pod, an Empire, well established but creaky, and an aspiring empire, insane but well equipped and surrounded by eminently stealable land.

[Kyfho Myoba]

There were no innocent Israelis at the music festival - all of them were in the military as evidenced by the rank next to their names in the paper publishing their obituary and status.
The innocent Druze in the Golan were killed by an Iron Dome missile that malfunctioned and did not explode after it missed its target.
Gaza, the West Bank, and most of Israel have been occupied since 1967, as per the UN.
Don't know about Lebanon, but you're wrong on everything else, so . . .
The US had already declared war on Japan when they attacked Pearl Harbor by embargoing Japan - an act of war, plus we know that FDR maneuvered Japan into "firing the first shot", re; Day of Deceit by Stinnett.
Every 30-40 years throughout history the Europeans have picked up sides and had it out, why should the US get involved?
Israel is the "one country" that slug someone in the face and then cry about their broken hand. They are currently in a huge domestic dispute over the "right to rape prisoners of war." Their religion literally teaches that all non-Jews are beasts in the shape of humans and have no rights that a Jew must respect. Worse than the Dred Scott decision. (Baba Mezia 14b: THE NON-JEWS ARE NOT HUMAN THEY ARE BEASTS.) So. Fuck them.
And you.

[mtrueman]

"Their religion literally teaches "

Their religion is not monolithic. Just like Christianity has many contradictory branches, beliefs and practices.

There are many Jews who find much to admire in Muslims. They worship the same God. Their women practice modesty, their men are circumcised. They are abstemious and emphasize personal and food hygiene. They encourage literacy and education. They pray and they are willing to sacrifice themselves for a holy cause. A lot of Israelis would like their Jews to be more like the Muslims who share the same roots after all.

[A Thinking Mind]

"Mr. President, we need authorization, are we cleared to strike targets in Iran?"

"You, you, you all, you just...you do whatever you think needs to be done."

[Ajsloss]

Send in the dog faced pony soldiers!

[JFree]

The US has been sleepwalking its way though the Middle East for many many decades. Since long before I lived in that region.

Those who advocate non-intervention should at least advocate for humint about the region. They don't. No one in our government does. None of our thinktanks does. We can't staff embassies in the region with people who speak the local language. No one seems to give a damn whether we should base policy on knowledge rather than ignorance/cant/emotion.

We are Blaster.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Since long before I lived in that region.

Did you move there because half the population masks up?

[mtrueman]

"Those who advocate non-intervention should at least advocate for humint about the region."

I've assumed that all our human intelligence comes second hand from Israeli sources. That way, they can play us and their neighbors simultaneously.

[JFree]

That's an accurate assumption now. Used to be that there was a lot of knowledge in oil companies and other businesses. And when Americans had to learn other languages rather than rely on everyone else speaking English. It's a real problem when no one is competent to judge when people are blowing smoke.

[mtrueman]

It's worth noting that the author, is a Persian speaker according to Reason's bio. Worked for the BBC. Many reporters with Middle East language skills have been fired. Or targeted for killing. And the commentariat here doesn't seem too fond of Petti.

[Kyfho Myoba]

First falsehood, the missle that killed the kids in the Golan Heights was a malfunctioning Iron Dome anti-missile that didn't explode as it was supposed to after missing its target. Everyone with any knowledge of these systems knows this. It came apart and hit a very densely populated area. It did not explode.

[Chipper Chunked Chile Con Congress (ex NCW)]

That is a truly excellently sourced claim.

[Social Justice is neither]

You need to remember to clean the fecal matter off that before you present it publicly next time.

[XM]

Biden was a reluctant ally at best. He tried to ride the fence, outwardly supporting Israel due to overwhelming public support while trying to appease the Hamas sympathizers in battleground states. Don't forget that he held up military aid approved by congress and remained silent as mobs attacked Jews in colleges and synagogues.

Just consider the rude reception Netanyahu received from democrats during his recent visit. Do you think Israel feels like they're getting a blank check from America? If you think they're trying to deliberately provoking a war to force our hands, then it's likely Israel feels the current admin is wavering in its support.

We need deterrents to keep peace. That's why we have all those nukes and support secularist dictators who can check the radicals inside their own country. Trump sufficiently worried Putin enough that he held back Ukraine invasion until he was out of office. "Biden will understand my position better" That's what he said.

Vote Trump in before China moves on Taiwan.

[mtrueman]

"Vote Trump in before China moves on Taiwan."

Do you think Trump would go to war over Taiwan or Ukraine or Israel? I don't get that impression. It seems he's not substantially different from Biden or any other politician of note.

Or do you think that Russia would give up its claim on Crimea because Trump was elected? Or China, Taiwan, or Palestine suddenly accept their status as sub humans? That seems terribly naive, to say nothing of overestimating Trump's skills as a politician.

[Vondy]

I think Trump’s base isn’t paying attention if they think he’ll keep us out of a war. He’ll provide assistance to Ukraine and push our NATO allies to take the lead to grind Putin into a deal, he’ll continue to aid Israel and let them go weapons-free to degrade Iran while pushing the Gulf League to normalize relations with the Jewish state, and then he’ll turn our full attention to China. And there, my friend, you need to start thinking really hard about what that will look like and whether it’s Trump rather than your inferences, wishful thinking, and isolationist projection that will rule the day. Taiwan's microchip industry is vital not only to our national security but our dominance in several world markets. It will be years before we have the manufacturing capacity to produce those at home. If we lose Taiwan before we build that infrastructure at home we lose. Period. And the sober heads in Washington know it. The people around Trump, his advisers, and all of the senators he’s looking at for DNI and State are proponents of active denial rather than passive deterrence when it comes to China, and that is a much higher stakes game. It’s also right up Der Rumper Trump’s alley. It’s his style, and it is not the peace at any costs you seem to wish for. Its peace unless the other guy doesn’t want it, in which case it turns into total war. I think Trump is 100% okay taking that gamble because is ego is big enough that he believes no one would dare test him. Feel free to bank on it.

[mtrueman]

"It will be years before we have the manufacturing capacity to produce those at home."

That's no time at all. Chou Enlai was once asked what he thought about the French Revolution. He said it was too soon to tell. It's a bit of a cliche but there's some truth to it. Why rush in with risky action when with patience and wise leadership Taiwan will see the light and return willingly to their ancestral home.

[Roberta]

The Israelis don't do terror right. They should make these deaths look like accidents, preferably of unknown cause. That's how you sow terror: giving your enemies inchoate fear, always suspecting something bad might happen with no warning and no blame. Your chief weapon should be poison, because that's what's most likely to look like a death from some other cause. And always deny all knowledge.

[DesigNate]

Do they even League of Assasin’s bro?

[mtrueman]

"The Israelis don’t do terror right."

Terror is basically theater. Putting on a show. The intended audience is in Iran, Israel, and us, too, Israel's funders suppliers and cheerleaders.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Biden could sleepwalk naked into the white house pool and be dragged out by lady secret service agents face down and it wouldn't make a dime's worth of difference. We have a new biracial saviour. Despite her carefully crafted retard facade Kamala is a brilliant closet peacenik alive and well in the fever dreams of Reason contributors. I know it seems murky but libertarians can rest easy knowing that the Warren regime will save us from the nuclear holocaust her current boss is dragging us into. Right Matthew? Right Matthew?!!!

[Vondy]

This is utterly ridiculous and is yellow journalism, which is what I’ve come to expect from Petti. The author supposes that the Israeli’s motives are to pull the US into a war with Iran, but his basis for this is circumstantial. It may or may not be true, but this article merely represents what the author believes, based on his personal biases and loose corollaries, rather than what he knows or can prove. In other words, he has a poorly founded hypothesis. It’s irresponsible at best and bigoted slander at worst.

Further, no country banks their future on their ally fighting their fights for them, least of all the Israelis, who don’t trust the US to be a reliable friend. We have, over the years, been inconsistent at best. Making the decisions of a country you don’t actually trust the central pillar of your existential future would be irrational, if not suicidal, in the Middle East. There could be several other reasonable outcomes the Israelis are looking for other than pulling the US into war with Iran. One could simply be goading Iran and Hezbollah into a fight on Israel’s timetable rather than theirs so that the US has to back an Israeli offensive in southern Lebanon rather than dealing with US opposition to it. It would be a poor move for Iran, who just pulled their advisers out of Yemen amid the post-Israeli airstrike turmoil the Hourthis are now dealing with, to activate their most important and potent proxy, at this moment. So, pushing them into that is in Israel’s best interests.

Hezbollah would inflict damage but be gutted and set back a decade or more, and Iran’s strategic position in the region would begin to crumble. The Israelis don’t need the US to become actively involved beyond intelligence and reconnaissance sharing, and sending munitions, to accomplish that. They just need to create a situation in which the US has little choice but to let them proceed with their own agenda. Petti consistently opts for Hollywood-esque melodrama and conspiracy theories rather than sober realism. He's playing intellectual checkers while others are playing chess.

[mtrueman]

" Making the decisions of a country you don’t actually trust the central pillar of your existential future would be irrational, if not suicidal, in the Middle East. "

The problem is that a good many Israelis don't trust their own government and want to see the PM behind bars. He's made a career out of fostering and financing Hamas, now the nation is paying the price. Insane and suicidal, as you fear, like a mad dog. Another commenter with a forgetable name wrote Israel is divided between those who support the torture and rape of prisoners and those who oppose it. Israel is as sick as your worst nightmares.

[kramartini]

I guess if we just stand by and let all the Jews be murdered, all of our Mideast problems go away.

[Kafantaris]

The standing of Israel and the United States will emerge battered in the world stage. And it will take long to rebuild. The best we can hope for is that out of the ashes we find a path to that elusive two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. But for that, Neytaynahu and company will have to go. No problem; they have outlived their usefulness anyway.