"Everything is so terrible in the nuclear agreement. We are involved in Ukraine, which is a distant war that Israel has no connection to, and in the main issue, we are uninvolved. The Iranian nuclear program is ticking. When it comes to the most critical issue since the establishment of the state, or at least since 1967, the government is silent – the silence of the lambs," former minister Yuval Stienitz says.
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An event occurred this week to which the United States reacted in a manner that surprised security officials in Israel – the ballistic missiles fired at an American target in Erbil, Iraq, supposedly in response to the assassination of two senior members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syria by Israel, but in essence, is a clear provocation of the Americans. The missiles were fired at the same time of the day as when Qassem Soleimani was killed two years ago.
In Israel, officials are shocked by the lack of American response, at least vis-à-vis Iran; Based on how things were commonly done during the Obama administration, we cannot rule out that the leak of the Israeli attack on the drone base on Feb. 14 originated in the US – again, to provide an excuse for their inaction and to motivate the Iranians.
The only way to undermine the Iranian nuclear project is through the known combination of heavy sanctions and a credible military threat.
"First and foremost, I blame ourselves," Stienitz says. "From the time the new government took office, we have neglected. We turned to efforts to persuade in closed-door talks and by promising not to surprise the Americans. We neglected the effective tools that were at our disposal."
The US can still operate militarily in Iran. What our top security officials refuse to understand is that from the point of view of Biden's democratic government, Israel is the problem, not Iran. And the matter fits in with the Ukraine war.
The US cannot operate in Ukraine, because a direct confrontation between American and Russian forces could spark a third world war. Such a situation has existed even since nuclear weapons were added to the military arsenal.
"The US can still operate in Iran, and nothing deters more than a war with America, " Stienitz says. One can find many reasons why Americans are supposed to understand this Ukrainian timing, following the Afghanistan fiasco, that the nuclearization of Iran must be prevented.
North Korea is an example. Japan and South Korea refrained from making a noise and acted vis-à-vis the Americans as Israel now operates quietly in closed-door conversations. As a result, North Korea is now a nuclear state that threatens the US itself.
"In this regard, Bibi [former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] was right. Unless you openly summon public opinion – then your opinion has no weight in closed-door conversations either," Stienitz says. Senior members of the defense establishment were in Washington this week. This is probably what they were trying to instill in the American mind, especially following the lack of response to the rocket fire earlier in the week.
"We constantly talk about a war that should and could have been prevented in Europe, and are silent about Iran," Stienitz says. In his opinion, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's efforts to mediate between Russia and Ukraine to end hostilities is not good for Israel.
Because even Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said after meeting for negotiations with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Turkey that the Russians are trying to get Ukraine to surrender – apparently the things journalist Barak Ravid reported from a source close to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy are true: Bennett offered the Ukrainian leader to accept President Vladimir Putin's proposal, which in Ukrainians' opinion, is tantamount to surrender.
In American public opinion, Israel is beginning to be perceived as bad both in the Iranian and Ukrainian contexts. If Israel was doing something grand and crucial with regard to the Iranian matter, then to hell with the elitist media and security experts; But meanwhile, Israel is losing on both fronts and is viewed as benefitting Putin both in Ukraine and with regard to the economic issue of the nuclear deal.
In the US, they quote IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot, who said that US withdrawal from the nuclear deal in 2018 was a "strategic mistake."
Meanwhile, an equally senior Israeli official involved in activities against the Iranian nuclear program is of the opposite opinion, because the combination to exert strong military pressure along with harsh sanctions on Iran was only made possible after the withdrawal.
Americans use voices like Eizenkot and former IDF intel chief Amos Yadlin to legitimize their moves. And the Ukrainians rattle Israel and its government.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov warned that Israel's action could cause a breach of trust between the two countries for many years.
It's already been said that in the Ukraine war, there are no winners. Except for one: China. And there will be one loser: Israel. This is the planned work of the Biden administration and its cynical policies towards Ukraine, the Middle East, and Israel. Bennett's mediation efforts are a result of the trap Washington set for Jerusalem.
The attacks on Israel with regard to Ukraine are part of the sale of the nuclear deal, Michael Doran – a senior fellow and director of the Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East at Hudson Institute – said in Caroline Glick's podcast.
Who put Russia on the border with Israel and forced it to negotiate with Putin? Former President Barack Obama.
"The administration's message to the progressive base of the democrats is: Israel wants to drag us into a war with Iran, but is not willing to fight with us in Ukraine. Israel is a bad ally in terms of Ukraine."
And the Bennett-Lapid government is booby-trapped because from the beginning it was set up so as not to confront the Americans. Netanyahu seemed a greater threat to them than a nuclear Iran.
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