Dieses Mal sind Trump und Netanjahu wirklich zerstritten – selten ist ein geopolitischer Würfelwurf so schnell schiefgegangen wie der des israelischen Premierministers

Excerpts from [article](https://www.ft.com/content/e14a6abe-f6fa-43d0-bbef-22139953e7b9) by Edward Luce:

*[…] Netanyahu sold Trump and his own public on the idea that, after 47 years, Iran’s theocrats were finally meeting their Waterloo. All Operation Epic Fury required was some lethal targeting and the Iranian people would do the rest.*

*Rarely has a geopolitical roll of the dice gone so rapidly wrong. Netanyahu played on Trump’s vanity to help convince him to start this war. That same vanity will now be deaf to any future bridges Netanyahu might try to sell.*

*The Israeli leader thus faces an unpalatable choice. Either he submits to a deal that leaves Iran considerably stronger than it was before February 28, or he breaks with the US by trying to scupper the deal. There is little scope here to split the difference. Netanyahu has the 60-day US-Iran negotiating period to figure it out.*

*[…] Assuming the talks do not hit an early landmine, their shrunken parameters will offer a painful teachable moment for Trump and those who urged him into this war. Trump initially claimed he was motivated to help Iran’s protesters, thousands of whom were killed by Iranian security forces at the start of the year. Now he praises Iran’s modified regime.*

*Having run through an extravagant list of war aims, Trump has settled on one — reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Difficult though it will be to swallow, loyalists will try to present the reopened waterway as a triumph, even though the strait was unimpeded before the war began. They will also brush off the unfreezing of up to $24bn in Iran’s assets as a feature of the natural order.*

*Woe betide those who dare liken it to the $1.7bn in cash that Barack Obama sent to Iran as part of a settlement in the wake of his 2015 deal. “That’s not going to happen with Trump,” the president promised at the start of Epic Fury.*

*The America First camp will be primed to praise whatever deal Trump strikes, even if it is less good than Obama’s, which Netanyahu also did his best to scupper. From their point of view, Trump’s flirtation with Middle Eastern forever wars is over. He is back to the president they thought they knew.*

So Trump does not want to pay for another Israeli land grab?

This is just copium. They’ll be best friends by September for the midterms.

It could be play-acting? Who knows might just be a way to placate the regime while the duo rebuilds and restrategizes to hit them back harder. The first ceasefire was broken by the US when they attacked Iranian boats and missile launchers in south Iran and the Persian Gulf in late May.

Its ultimately Israel’s war against Iran. US is just the powerful sidekick. Could be Trump’s way of shifting the blame and responsibility entirely on Israel for the global POV.