The Day Israel Lost America

[Nevilledog]

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/the-day-israel-lost-america.html

No paywall link
https://archive.li/LAaZi

Years from now, February 28, 2026, might be remembered as the day Israel finally lost the American public.

The Iran war, launched by the U.S. on that date and executed in direct coordination with Israel, is predictably a catastrophe, unleashing deadly chaos throughout the Middle East. American bombs are slaughtering Iranian civilians. Iranian rockets are terrorizing the Gulf States. The Strait of Hormuz, through which a significant portion of the world’s oil flows, is functionally closed, and energy prices are spiraling. At least six American troops are dead.

Invoking the quagmire of the Iraq War makes a great deal of sense at the moment, but the more chilling analog might be Vietnam. Iran is vast and has a fraught and byzantine political culture; Tehran lies at the center, far from any border, and the country is home to enormous mountains, deserts, and steppes. If Donald Trump makes the long-term troop commitments that the hawks in his administration desire, many more Americans are going to die. And there will still be no democracy in Iran. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s death won’t readily deliver it.

Why are we there? What are we doing? A majority of Americans are horrified or, at minimum, bewildered. It was Marco Rubio, the powerful secretary of State, who spoke the truth to reporters on Monday. “We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action,” Rubio said. “We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces … And we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”

The comments made a dark reality plain: It was Israel, not just the U.S., that wanted Khamenei dead and were agitating for the sort of all-out war that past presidents, Republican and Democratic alike, understood carried too many risks to be worthwhile. The Iranian regime is vile and undeniably a state sponsor of terrorism; Israel, a sworn enemy of Iran, has reason to want regime change. But it’s been up to the U.S., as best as it could, to maintain a delicate balance in a volatile region. As dangerous as Iran might be, a nuclear attack was nowhere near imminent. After last year’s bombings, Trump boasted that the U.S. had destroyed whatever nuclear capacity Iran might possess. Barack Obama’s diplomacy — yielding the Iran nuclear accords — had found real success, but Trump tore them up because the Israeli government and its backers in the U.S. hate the idea of negotiating with Iran.

*snip*

[Dave Bowman]

1. "the more chilling analog might be Vietnam".

Yes, it's a better analogy and it won't be pretty.

[ms liberty]

20. It will be uglier and the reverberations will last longer, for hundreds of years.

They have very long memories, the people of the Middle East. And we - europe and americans - have been the bad guy too damn many times.

[leftstreet]

2. DURec

[dalton99a]

3. The day Trump revealed himself to be Netanyahu's stupid lapdog.

Benjamin Netanyahu, who has delighted in the slaughter of 60,000 Palestinians and the immiseration of Gaza in the wake of the October 7 attacks, has never met a war he did not like. Bloodshed has allowed him to cling to power. The far right that will effectively determine the future of Israel — even if a more moderate politician replaces Netanyahu, religious zealots and anti-Arab fanatics will continue to hold sway — has longed for a conflict like this one, and Netanyahu has delivered it. Rubio was forced to walk back his comments soon after (“If you tell the president of the United States that if we don’t go first, we’re going to have more people killed and more people injured, the president’s going to go first. That’s what he did.”), but the perception had already hardened. The U.S. was fighting Israel’s war.

The fiercest supporters of Israel in the United States do not quite understand that there is no going back. Gavin Newsom, California’s governor and a 2028 presidential front-runner, now calls Israel an “apartheid” state. A few years ago, this would have been unfathomable — a mainstream Democrat who spoke like this would have been ridiculed and censured, driven to the margins of the party. Even in 2024, the pro-Palestine “Uncommitted” movement was shunned at the Democratic National Convention. A year ago, few pundits anywhere imagined an Israel-skeptical Muslim could get himself elected mayor of New York City. We are in a new era, and it’s going to be a permanent one: Poll after poll shows that Americans under 40 take a startlingly dim view of Israel.

For a while, Israel hawks could dismiss these polls because they showed only the left-wing youth turning on the Jewish State. They were the radicals who could be, perhaps, nudged off the political stage. Now young people on the right, the MAGA youth, are coming to a similar place, if for different reasons: They view the special relationship between the two countries as a violation of America First. Some of this might be antisemitism; some of it, though, is genuine skepticism of an arrangement that doesn’t make sense to most Americans. It’s not as if the U.S. unconditionally arms other nations or gladly hurries into wars they might want to start.

The Iran war could be what decisively breaks the United States from Israel. Not yet — certainly not now, with Trump in the White House. But there will be presidents after Trump. A future Democrat will have no incentive to cater to the whims of a warmongering Israel. A Republican not explicitly bound to pro-Israel, right-wing Evangelicals might not care a great deal about Israel, either. Why should he? The American people do not want this war with Iran. They don’t want their brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters to die. They see this for what it is: a cataclysm.

[Johnny2X2X]

4. Israel general re American boots on the ground

This week, I heard an Israeli military leader saying something like, "Israel hasn't decided yet if American boots will be on the ground in Iran."

Like WTF? So Israel is now decided if American soldiers will be put in harms way or not. That's what happens with such weak leadership in the White House.

[SheltieLover]

5. The power of kompromat. Repukes should try living with integrity!

Examples: Bidens, Obamas, Clintons ( except Bill's bj).

[3_Limes]

9. I don't think thats it.

At least not over the longer arc. While there are so very many skeletons in Trumps closet that or could be the case with him, but for decades it seemed paramount that one of the first tasks for any incoming president was to prove that he could sufficiently coddle Israel. Which always puzzled me. And I don't think it was kompromat every time. It was something else.

[PatrickforB]

16. I believe it was AIPAC, because they pour money into defeating any politicians (either party) who do not

genuflect properly, and the horribly arrogant and misguided Evangelical Christian Nationalists who think God needs help precipitating the 'end times.'

Blackhearted evil all of it.

[2naSalit]

6. IDK...

They lost me several years back.

[Grins]

11. Me too. Going back years.

I used to back Israel. But over time (decades) and over events, liking turned to distrust, to dislike, to “Fuck’em!”

[3_Limes]

7. Thanks for sharing this.

I've had some deep misgivings about our relationship with Israel for some years now and I'm very glad to see it being remolded. I want to see that relationship continue. But not the way it's been up to this point.

[ananda]

8. Hard to believe obliterating Gaza wasn't enough...

It just boggles my mind that we have come to this.

[Soul_of_Wit]

10. At least W had the decency to be a puppet to an American, Dick Cheney (n/m)

[pandr32]

12. Donald is so unqualified it is all so predictable.

He does business like a mob boss and the business involves all things illegal: human trafficking, looting our lands and everything protected, selling pardons and honors, cutting programs he can't personally profit from, awarding government contracts to sketchy people who have paid him bribes, insider trading on steroids, shutting down departments and obligations so that there is more money to loot and so people will know his power (if little kids can't pay him shake down money they should go hungry), attacking women and teaching them their rightful place under male thumbs, shaking down businesses to pay him fees if they operate in the U.S. or do business with the U.S. (he IS the U.S. now), turning all who work in top government into loyalists and wiseguys, consolidating the media under his control so he can catch and kill stories and hide his crimes, terrorizing the People, and on and on. Nothing is off limits to him.
He demands (and bathes in) flattery and spends his few brain cells on plots of vengeance.
Netanyahu was on a leash, but he is smarter and more cunning than Donald (finally a POTUS he can use) and now has the U.S. on his leash. This is a guy who barely had enough power to form a government. He should have been imprisoned and ditto for our own hell-beast.
We are so f*cked. I am so glad my children are not presently in the military.

[republianmushroom]

13. They have lost this American's support.

[ECL213]

14. Wishful thinking.

77M (supposedly) Trump Voters.
75M Evangelical Christians.
80% of American Jews are Zionists.
1M Iranian Americans

There is a lot of overlap here.
There are also many within those groups who are anti-war with Iran.
I'm also sure I've left out groups.

But I would hazard a guess that at least 25% of the U.S. is just fine with all of this shit.

[Exp]

15. Israel has ALWAYS BEEN the USA's little BULLY BROTHER! The USA has to step in and fight for our Little Bully

Brother messes.

I was done two decades ago.

[Hope22]

17. It was our felon president who led us into this war.

Every step of the way. I supposed Bibi made the monster rape the girls too! So sick of this $#it!

[twodogsbarking]

18. Since 1948 there has been a "relationship".

[Dave Bowman]

21. Yeah, there's one screwing the other but it's not a healthy relationship.

[BidenRocks]

19. We got the kid his own place and still

we need to send money every month!
He doesn't play well with others as he thinks he is 'Chosen' and is entitled to YOUR land all because his invisible spook in the sky said so.
We helped create this to the detriment of everyone else!
I have mine! Screw you!

(Tip toeing through the alert mine field) Damn!

[Ruby the Liberal]

22. Trump's greed on land rights to 'develop' Gaza is driving this

He doesn't give a shit but his is team has to know that this will be a disaster here at home. But as long as it keeps focus from the Trump-Epstein files and allows Jared to keep working with architects, they'll get their war.