The Demonstration of U.S. and Israeli Military Superiority Has Not Yet Produced a Positive, Victorious Outcome from the Israeli and American Point of View
Jonathan Spyer | MEF | April 3, 2026
President Donald J. Trump participate in an expanded bilateral meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday, Jan. 27, 2020, in the Oval Office of the White House. Photo by The White House from Washington, DC – President Trump Meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Public Domain, Wikipedia
The current round of fighting between Israel, the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran appears to have reached a stalemate. On the one hand, Iran is being pummelled by US and Israeli air power, against which it can mount no effective defense. At the same time, the demonstration of US and Israeli military superiority has not, until now at least, produced a positive, victorious outcome from the Israeli and American point of view.
Unless the U.S. and Israel can decisively break this stalemate, the battle of the last month is likely to be recorded as a limited but notable achievement for the Iranian side.
The regime, if it survives and if it ends the war in effective control of the Strait of Hormuz, will have demonstrated that despite its conventional inferiority, it possesses sufficient vigor and durability to endure the assaults of its enemies unbowed. It will also have shown that it can respond with consequential, strategic moves of its own.
Should this prove the outcome, the long Iranian bid for domination of the region will be set to continue. Further rounds of fighting will almost certainly lie ahead. But more broadly, the Iranian regional strategy will continue to produce instability and dysfunction across the Middle East, preventing the normal development of societies, and ensuring continued strife.
Declaring Victory?
Statements from both the US and Israeli leadership of the last days appear to suggest a framing of the situation that is preparing the way for an acceptance of this stalemate.
President Trump, responding to reporters’ questions at the White House on Tuesday, suggested that the Iranians ‘don’t have to make a deal. … When we feel that they are … put into the stone ages and won’t be able to come up with a nuclear weapon, then we’ll leave, whether we have a deal or not. It’s irrelevant now.”
Regarding the Strait of Hormuz, the president appeared to reiterate that this was not a US concern, saying that “I think it’ll be very safe, but we have nothing to do with that.”
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