Peloni: Amb. Yoram Ettinger provides an important context for Netanyahu’s trip to Mar A Lago. Ettinger notes that the overwhelming defeat of Iranian hegemony in the Middle East has been simultaneously a strategic defeat for China in the region which has led to China doubling down on its support of Iran by reaming them and providing them with advanced warfare tools. He goes on to explain that negotiating with Iran advances Iranian goals of delaying defeat while rebuilding and establishing new heights of its warfare capabilities. This is the message needed to be heard in Washington, and in Florida too.
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I agree with the earlier comments. However, I wonder if while Bibi and Trump are trying to ease Hamas out and work with all the other players in the ME region that the racial muslims will export their terror to the west – Europe and America. It seems to be, and they think so that the model they operate under cannot be defeated. This has been going on for over 75 years. It’s time Israel sues for peace and kill once and for all everything that disagrees with peace.
I agree with @leon Kushner that Yoram Ettinger is super intelligent, knowledgeable, and wise.
He does present extremely good arguments in favor of regime change in Iran now.
However, I have noticed this about Mr. Ettinger, he presents carefully thought out arguments that convey clearly the message he wants conveyed. But here’s the problem. From an Israeli perspective, Ettinger is presenting at minimum what Israel wants and needs help from the US to do. From an American perspective, it sounds like Israel is asking for its maximal set of wishes (regime change).
The problem is this: regime change has a really bad name in the US now, something that might be difficult to understand in Israel. But the election of Donald Trump wasn’t so much about being isolationist but about NOT being like the Bushes: making the world “safe for democracy,” which meant regime change and it meant attempting to impose democracy on nations with no experience in nor culture to support democracy.
If you want to understand Trump’s Middle East actions to date, I think he himself has said in response to current Syrian leadership and possibly also about Qatar, “we are not about telling other people how to live.” However, at the same time as our goal isn’t regime change, our goal is to put America’s needs first. In the Middle East, Trump has made decisions to find what he and other leaders have in common, in order to isolate China and Iran, and insofar as the leaders involved are good with that, there is a meeting of minds.
I was pretty horrified by the normalization of Qatar, al Jolani, and Erdogan by Trump. And I just couldn’t figure out how Trump could make relationships with these people as if they were good neighbors of his or good neighbors of others in the Middle East when Qatar is not a good neighbor of any country, Erdogan is looking to bully Israel, al Jolani is a mass murderer, etc. You can criticize Trump all day long for treating these people as equals or peers, or you can try to understand how does it benefit the US for him to take this position?
Personally I think nothing has changed in Trump’s respect for and friendship with Bibi from first term to now. What has changed is the US has a limited amount of time to turn our economy around from a dead economy of the last 80 years to a vibrant economy. I think Trump’s attitude is that if he puts himself out to treat these countries with respect, he’s more likely to get respect in return, and that can benefit the US. If he is able to keep the US out of war for the next period of time, that will help our economy and save many lives.
The old model of the CIA in the Middle East was to create conflict. They created cold wars and they created hot wars, and there has been nothing but war for Israel and many countries for a long period of time thanks to the CIA. Trump wants to change that. What if he just treats other leaders with respect and does not act as if the US owns the world? He’s upending the CIA’s business model since 1979! Trump is seeing to it that there isn’t going to be a never ending war in the Middle East, even if that means giving Hamas more “chances” to keep to their promise of disarming. You and I might think it is a losing move to give anything to psychopathic mass murderers. And we might be right. But Trump is aiming for something more than being right, he is honestly aiming for peace in the Middle East.
So the issue I have with Ettinger’s arguments isn’t that they aren’t good arguments, it’s that they don’t take into account how Trump feels and what Trump is aiming for. Only Bibi can know this, because they have had a relationship over time and I believe both of them have the people skills to understand others well. What’s needed are Ettinger’s arguments PLUS an understanding of what are Trump’s limits, and what is it that Trump is aiming for, and how well do Ettinger’s points align with what Trump is aiming for?
I love Yoram! Super intelligent, knowledgeable and wise. The world should listen to him. G-d Bless!