CNN
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President Donald Trump is under opposition pressure from within Israel and from his own Maga base.
Israel has sent a clear signal, including a former senior official, hoping that the US will eventually join the conflict and use its unique military edge to destroy the Iranian nuclear complex in Fordau, buried underground.
“The United States and the US President believe that the region is in a positive way and that it is an obligation to ensure that the world is free from Iran, which has (a) nuclear weapons,” former Israeli Defense Minister Joab Garant told CNN’s Biana Gorodriga in an interview.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used an interview with ABC News on Monday to pour cold water into diplomatic channels where Trump appears to be desperate to bring back.
The sense that an intertwined political and national security crisis is being built was exacerbated by Trump’s decision to suddenly leave the G7 summit in western Canada on Monday night.
“We have to get back early for obvious reasons,” Trump said. “They understand. This is a big thing.”
He returns home to Washington, echoing with dull warnings from some of Magazine’s most influential opinion shapers. Characters like Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson say the decision to hit Iran would represent his 10-year-old political movement and a denial of “America’s first” principles. “I don’t want the US to get caught up in another Middle East war that doesn’t serve our interests,” Carlson said on Bannon’s “War Room” show on Monday.
The synergistic effect of the movements of American right and left populists is also on display. Vermont Independence Sen. Bernie Sanders, who ran as a leading Democratic candidate in the 2016 and 2020 elections, said the United States should not be dragged into another Netanyahu war.
The loud voices against deeper US involvement highlighted the painful legacy of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, creating the political forces that raised Trump’s populist uprising. But the wings of the GOP’s neoconservative interventionist have not disappeared. Hawks like Senator Lindsey Graham are trying to offer the United States an opportunity to clearly end the 45-year enemy nuclear aspirations and change the Middle East, as the confluence of Israel’s blitz against Iran’s air defense and the forces that undermined the regime.
European leaders who met Trump in Canada have put pressure on them themselves, asking them to see if the US would hold them back on Netanyahu amid concerns about Trump’s proposal that Russian President Vladimir Putin might take part in the peace effort.
Even Iran has accused Israel of obstructing US nuclear talks and accusing it of obstructing its nuclear association with the Islamic Republic.
Deciding to define Trump’s presidency…and more
Multiple voices derived from Trump reflect the severity of decisions that have consequences that always exceed the heavy burden of sending Americans to war.
Whatever he decides, Trump has crucial consequences for Israel’s security, the broader Middle East, and the power and influence of the United States. He can’t know whether the US attack on the Fordow basement could be successful or whether it would inhal the US deeply into a long-term conflict.
Historically, Trump has barely realized that his options are narrowed down. Therefore, pressure from all directions is at risk of counterproductive effects.
Ironically, Trump set this dilemma himself. His decision to leave the previous US nuclear deal with Iran in his first term has pleased Israel, but laid the foundation for a future crisis.
The fierce debate in the Magazine movement, which divides the conservative media, is indication that Trump’s own support base is on the line, and that the legacy he promised is not marked by foreign interventionism.
Trump often creates shocks and confuses his enemies by igniting conflicts that later deflate or postpone. This is his preferred approach to the trade war. However, they will not return from a US military strike with bombs destroying bunkers in Fordow. Whatever the aftermath, the president will own it.
This may explain why he avoided committing himself to any action on Monday. He said Iran should “take a deal” and should immediately say “before it’s too late.” But when pressed by a reporter about what would lead to direct US intervention in the conflict, he replied, “I don’t want to talk about it.”
On Monday evening, the president wrote on social media that “Iran cannot have nuclear weapons,” and said everyone should “evacuate Tehran soon,” but he did not explain why he is issuing such a warning.
Perhaps Trump is just playing for time or trying to get Tearan back to the table. But maybe he really doesn’t know what he’s going to do.
So far, Iran has not directly targeted US bases or personnel and has not expanded the conflict. For example, after shipment in the Strait of Hormuz, which can cause global economic shock waves. That could be a sign that you want to avoid drawing cards in. But while Israel can delay Iran’s nuclear program, it is generally agreed that only the US can destroy it.
In an extraordinary interview with CNN’s Golodryga, Gallant warned that Trump has the future of the world in his hands.
“This could be a disaster for the world,” he said. He mentioned the possibility of an Iranian bomb. “And I believe that the recent resolution of the US President will pave the way for America to enter into this very important operation,” Gallant said. “The US President has the option to change the Middle East and influence the world.”
Another Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz also pointed out unique US military assets. “I remember that the United States is much stronger than us. It has a capacity that we don’t own. But I’m not in a position to recommend what to do to the US president,” Gantz told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “If the US decides to act, I am confident that it will do it not only for our interests, but for its own interests.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog hinted that Trump was taken on board to pursue a diplomatic solution. “(A) You can speak peaceful diplomacy (solution), while underneath you move towards the bomb. That’s exactly the situation,” Herzog told Wolf Blitzer in the “Situation Room.”
Netanyahu then aimed for a message to Trump’s Magazine critics. “Today, it’s Tel Aviv. Tomorrow, it’s New York. Netanyahu told ABC.
Honest debate over Iran is ongoing amid Trump’s grassroots movement, which usually leads to division across the entire right-wing media empire, which explicitly supports the president.
Bannon argued that the major new US flee in the Middle East would deviate from the core principles of Trumpism, including avoiding “eternal wars,” banishing undocumented immigrants, securing borders, and facing China to revive American manufacturing. He said in the “Chaust of War” that Israel had to make sovereignty decisions for itself, as every nation should. “But when we start making decisions based on the assumption that America will come not only for defense but for offensiveness… No, we have to make a decision that puts America first.”
Bannon proceeded: “We have to think about this. This attack on the pearl port-type mullah is fine for Israel. But is it right for the United States?” He concluded that the real war that the United States faces is against immigrants that are not documented in its own soil.
The basic questions underpin this internal Magazine discussion. If “America First” isn’t to avoid the Middle Eastern quagmire that ruined President George W. Bush’s Republican president, does that really mean anything?
Trump’s political success was fake in the US centre, in a town that fought and sent young people to die in wars after 9/11. These conflicts began with the first success of Shock and Way, as Israel celebrated by eliminating top Iranian military leaders and nuclear scientists. But they regressed to the bloody slow that still plagued American politics. No one has spoken about betrayal yet. But just a month ago, in Saudi Arabia, Trump corrected his opposition to interventionism and state building in the Middle East.
On the left, there was already antipathy against Netanyahu due to the terrible casualties against the Palestinian civilians of the war with Hamas. However, Sanders also appears to be fighting for Trump’s attention, saying, “The attack was specifically designed to hamper America’s diplomatic efforts. Israel assassinated a man who oversees Iran’s nuclear negotiation team despite the fact that further talks with the US are scheduled for Sunday.”
Allergies to such foreign entanglements are not only endemic to Trump’s political projects. His two predecessors, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, felt the same way.
But now it’s falling to Trump to make decisions that all modern presidents fear.