Trump's Pro-War 'Understanding' with Netanyahu

As usual, Trump intends to go along with whatever the Israeli government wants.

Trump has reportedly reached an “understanding” with Netanyahu on Iran:

Earlier this week, Netanyahu flew back from Washington on cloud 9. Whereas observers attributed his broad grin to the boost Trump gave him on crushing Hamas in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages held by the group, his sense of satisfaction actually appears to stem from understandings reached in the Oval Office on Iran.

A senior Israeli diplomatic source confirmed to Al-Monitor, on condition of anonymity, that Israel and the United States have reached a “full understanding” on the Iranian issue. That includes agreement on the steps that should be taken if Iran refuses to sign a nuclear agreement far more stringent than the one negotiated under President Barack Obama in 2015 and on which Trump reneged in 2018.

If this is accurate, it is more evidence that Trump will back an Israeli attack on Iran sooner than later. As usual, Trump intends to go along with whatever the Israeli government wants and he will put U.S. interests in jeopardy to do it. That risks triggering a new crisis in the Middle East, and there is a good chance that this will get the U.S. into yet another unnecessary war.

Dalia Dassa Kaye commented on the reporting of the Trump-Netanyahu “understanding” last week:

Essentially this is Trump's backing for an Israeli military strike on Iran's nuclear sites. Trump will not lean on Netanyahu when it comes to the Palestinians or when it comes to Iran. No amount of 'but he doesn't want war' talk changes that.

Trump has said that he wants a “verified nuclear peace agreement,” but we know all the reasons why this isn’t credible and why Iran won’t go for it. The terms of any new deal are going to be so unreasonable that Iran would never agree to it. What would this “far more stringent” agreement look like? David Ignatius explained the Israeli view on Friday:

If Iran won’t agree to a Libya-style abandonment of its nuclear facilities [bold mine-DL], Israel is prepared to bomb those facilities — with or without U.S. support, the officials said.

Obviously, the “Libya model” is just as much of a non-starter for Iran as it was for North Korea when John Bolton was talking about it back in 2018. There is no chance that Iran would agree to the complete elimination of its nuclear program, and the people pushing these demands must know that. This amounts to demanding Iranian capitulation with the threat of war if they refuse. No self-respecting government could agree to such extortion. It is not a serious diplomatic proposal to resolve the issue. It is clearly nothing more than a pretext for launching an attack.

Trump hinted that he favors a Libya-style arrangement when he said, “I’d much rather see a deal with Iran where we can do a deal — supervise, check it, inspect it and then blow it up or just make sure that there is no more nuclear [bold mine-DL].” In other words, the president seeks the total dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program. That shows that his position on Iran is still every bit as hardline and unrealistic as his position on North Korea was in 2018 and 2019. It isn’t surprising that Trump hasn’t learned anything from that failure, but in the Iranian case there is a much greater likelihood that his intransigence and maximalism will lead to armed conflict.

Whether Trump really “wants” a war or not, he is doing almost everything he can to make it more likely. Intensifying sanctions, increasing tensions, and encouraging Israel’s illegal aggression make Trump’s Iran policy a pro-war one in practice no matter what he says about it. If the president cared a whit about peace in the region, he would be doing pretty much the opposite of what he has done so far.

During his meeting with Rubio yesterday, Netanyahu was boasting that Israel “can and will finish the job” against Iran. He assumes that he has full U.S. backing for whatever he wants to do, and Trump and Rubio have given him every reason to believe this. Trump’s Iran policy is encouraging Israeli aggression, and it is on track to be even more disastrous for the U.S. and the region than it was last time.