Israel is making sure Trump can't find an off-ramp in Iran

Cook, Jonathan
http://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israel-making-sure-trump-cannot-find-ramp-iran
Date Written:  2026-03-30
Publisher:  Middle East Eye
Year Published:  2026
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX25481

Netanyahu pitched the war as a repeat of Israel’s apparent 'audacious feat' of smashing Hezbollah. The US president should have noted instead Israel’s moral and strategic defeat in Gaza.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

The main problem for Trump, the US narcissist-in-chief, is that he is no longer in charge of events - beyond a series of soundbites, alternating between aggression and accommodation, that appear only to have enriched his family and friends as oil markets rise and fall on his every utterance.

Trump lost control of the military fight the moment he fell for Netanyahu’s pitch.

He may be commander-in-chief of the strongest military in the world, but he has now found himself unexpectedly in the role of piggy in the middle.

He is largely powerless to bring to an end an illegal war he started. Others now dictate events. Israel, his chief ally in the war, and Iran, his official enemy, hold all the important cards. Trump, despite his bravado, is being dragged along in their tailwind.

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