The Man You Hate to Love |
Israel and the United States are joined together in a sizable military operation – a.k.a. a war – with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Israel has been warning for decades that Iran is a threat not just to Israel, but to the West as a civilization. Iran has boldly declared its desire and intention to destroy Israel and the West. We have until now faced the proxies in Lebanon, Gaza, and since October, 2023, the Houthis in Yemen. Last summer we and the U.S. took the fight to the source. It is reasonable to say that there is but one man responsible for Israel’s ability to take down Iran’s threat.
For as long as the State of Israel has been, the United States policy toward Israel has been pretty consistent. There have been hills and dales along the way (more of the latter), but basically, the concept of an expression of Jewish national identity is acceptable, and should be supported.
There is within that position a tendency toward not allowing Israel to overreach in its success in defending itself from those who work toward our destruction, lest those who work toward our destruction get angry with the U.S. President Donald Trump has not entirely rejected that tendency (note the Board of Peace in Gaza). He has, however, shuffled the deck of cards that America and, by extension, Israel can play. Iranians attacked the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979, and has been poking America in the eye ever since. It is the goal of the regime in Iran to impose the will of their dogma on the rest of the world, and destroy those who resist. It should be the goal of any peace/freedom-loving people to protect and preserve itself and its way of life. The United States has appeased and conceded to Iran in order to come to a negotiated settlement. The United States did nothing when Iran violated the negotiated settlement. Trump disposed of the bad negotiated settlement, and offered Iran a new opportunity to remain an Islam-based state, so long as they gave up on nuclear power. He said they have to agree to his terms, or pay the price of refusal. And then he stood by his word.
Did the conflict spread, as Iran threatened and critics predicted? It has. Have oil prices risen? They have. The latter will level off, as threats to shipping diminishes and supplies are freed up. The broadening of the conflict has created a situation where Saudi Arabia is about to start flying sorties with Israel’s air force. Who would have thought that something other than Palestinian statehood could bring these two countries together?
Donald Trump created an atmosphere of trust between the U.S. and Israel, and fear within Iran (and other countries, not necessarily in the Middle East). Military action always has a price, and Trump is making Iran pay. Any other U.S. administration would be calling for restraint, would be calling for a cease fire, and would be holding Israel responsible for escalation and exacerbating a sensitive situation. One may think and say what one wants about him; he may be over ambitious, full of bluster, and full of himself. Love him or hate him, in the interest of intellectual honesty, one must accept and respect that President Donald J. Trump, in trying something no one else has had the courage to do, may have found a way to move this region to at least a less tense era , more open to opportunity.
And he is doing it with us. Seems to me that’s worthy of a little slack.