While the methods have varied — from intelligence operations and public diplomacy to lobbying and political pressure — the strategic objective has remained consistent: preserving a state of confrontation between the US and Iran while opposing diplomatic initiatives that could weaken Israel’s leverage in shaping US Middle East policy.
Bill to fund war on Iran and a handful of Trump priorities passes largely along party lines, faces Senate uncertainty.
A tranche of more than 100,000 hacked emails from former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak reveal that the pair had “intimate, oftentimes daily correspondence,” during which they discussed “political and business strategy as Epstein coordinated meetings for Barak with other members of his elite circles.”
2 soldiers died during Iranian attacks in Jordan, the result of the U.S. refusing to make a good-faith effort to comply with the Iran MOU. The agreement called for a ceasefire in Lebanon, but Washington made no real effort to push Israel to withdraw its forces. The White House could have used its leverage, but instead chose to let the Israelis call the shots – TCN
We have seen a major escalation between the US and Iran over the past 24 hours, but it is likely only a prelude to what appears to be coming next week
A senior Iranian official said Tehran privately told Vance the pair were exploiting the negotiations for financial gain. The Trump administration says it never happened.
Section 219 carries the formal name the “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative.” It threads a single foreign country straight into the apparatus that commandeers over a trillion dollars of American firepower. Americans have grown weary of bankrolling other nations’ wars while their own towns go without, and the honest answer is not a slyly buried merger engineered to outlast every vote. The answer is a clean break.
Hard power is needed to halt Israel’s reckless quest to redraw the borders of the Middle East in pursuit of “Greater Israel”. The power Israel lost to dictate the terms of peace on Iran, it has sought to regain in Lebanon. And Israel is now also focussing on Turkey (this has not gone down well with Trump).
Opposing the steps needed to make negotiations succeed is an argument for returning to the very strategy that produced war.
Powerful members of Congress make comments that could keep the war for Israel going – Cruz, Cassidy, Wicker, Schumer, Warren, Markey