“You’re f**king crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.”
The above, according to Axios, is what Donald Trump shouted at Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call last Monday.
Why?
Because Trump is having peace talks with Iran, but Netanyahu wants to bomb Beirut, and Trump is unhappy because if Netanyahu does what he wants, Trump won't get what he wants.
What is it that Trump wants?
Trump wants to look like a winner — and he wants to look like a winner before the midterm elections, which are less than 6 months away.
How can Trump look like a winner?
He can look like a winner if he can make Iran toe the line.
How can he make Iran toe the line?
Well, the theory is not difficult to understand — what he has to do is apply the carrot and stick method.
Trump has already shown the stick — he has gone to war with Iran and killed their supreme leader and the supreme leader's family — he has also done a lot of physical damage to Iran and its military capability.
What about Iran?
Well, actually, Iran supposedly has done much more damage than what is reported — we know what Iran has done to the fuel-dependent global economy, but reportedly, Iran has also inflicted heavy damage on Israel and American allies in the Middle East — it is just that its military successes have not been as widely reported in social media or mainstream media because the news of its military achievements is likely being suppressed.
But anyway, the fact that Iran has been able to take the beating from Trump's stick and deliver some beatings using its own stick — meaning Iran also has military successes — means that in its peace talks with Trump, Iran can ask for a bigger piece of carrot than what Trump originally had in mind to offer.
And what is this bigger piece of carrot that Iran is asking for?
Well, it seems that part of the bigger carrot that Iran might be expecting is assurance that Lebanon will be safe.
Is assuring the safety of Lebanon a carrot that Trump is willing to part with to strike a deal with Iran?
Yes — it probably is.
So what is the problem?
The problem might be Israel.
Why?
Well, Israel might not want America and Iran to strike a deal.
Why?
Partly because Netanyahu might not want it — Netanyahu has legal troubles in Israel, and he is likely only safe from his legal troubles for as long as he is the wartime leader of Israel.
But more than Netanyahu, Israel itself might not want peace with Iran until its full objectives are met.
Why?
Because Israel has crossed the Rubicon — it has cast the die — it has sunk its ships after landing on enemy territory — in other words, it is on a do-or-die mission — either it achieves its full objectives, or it will be destroyed.
So what is the full objective of Israel?
Israel's full objective is likely the full secularization of the Middle East.
Israel will probably not cease its military campaign until the Islamic nations around it are defeated and a fully liberal secular form of government takes its place.
What does that mean?
It means Israel is not going to cease its military campaign in nations like Iran until all the Islamic institutions in Iran — be they clerical institutions or pro-clerical military institutions — are destroyed and dismantled.
In their place, Israel probably wants a new government that will be pro-LGBT, allow Muslim Iranians to convert into other religions or become atheists, and hosts rock concerts and Oktoberfest parties.
Why?
Because Israelis probably believe that it is only the full secularization and liberalization of the Middle East that will ensure Israel's safety and allow Israel to finally be accepted as a part of the Middle East.
Until it achieves its full objectives, Israel will not consent for the war in the Middle East to end.
Israel cannot — because it has caused so much damage to its enemies that it will most certainly be destroyed if it doesn't completely destroy all of its enemies, by converting them fully into secularism and liberalism.
But if Israel persists with the war, even if America does not want to, won't it cause Israel's relationship with America to fray?
Maybe in the short run, but not in the long run.
Why?
Because at the end of the day, the long-term interests of America and Israel are aligned.
America is the leader of Western civilization, which is in a state of decline. The only way that America will be able to reverse the Western civilizations state of decline is if it expands the boundaries of the Western civilization.
Other than America, Israel is the nation that is most loyal and most keen to reverse the decline of Western civilization, by expanding the boundaries of Western civilization in the Middle East.
That being the case, even if Trump is shouting profanities towards Netanyahu today, in the long run, the relationship between Israel and America will be as close as the relationship between a father and his youngest son, who are both dedicated to reversing the declining family fortune.
So what is the conclusion here?
The conclusion is that this war in the Middle East is not going to end no matter which individual - even one as powerful as Trump - wants it.
It won't, because this is a civilizational war, that is bigger than any one person. It might be bigger than any nation. It might be bigger than even an entire generation.
This war in the Middle East has already crossed the midpoint. It is futile to expect it to go back to the point before it started. Rather, it would be much wiser for us to anticipate it arriving at the other end.
We don't know how long it is going to take to arrive at the other end, who is going to arrive, or how they will arrive, but what we do know is that we cannot expect peace in this war by hoping that it will retreat and return to the point before it started — instead, we can only hope to see peace return when it continues forward until it reaches the other end.
TheRealNehruism (nehru.sathiamoorthy@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact creator@newswav.com.
