73 Comments
User's avatar
Jim Givitis's avatar

End US aid to Israel = Israel restrained.

Siniša Spajić's avatar

Bibi doesn’t listen to Trump because he’s running the show.

Had Trump been the boss, he wouldn’t have attacked Iran in the first place.

John Costello's avatar

True, and there have been other tell tale events, such as Netanyahoo's continuing aggressions in Gaza and elsewhere, after the BoP was established. Trump had a golden opportunity to win the Nobel, there was no need. Blackmail?

Siniša Spajić's avatar

It’s what most people think

John Michael's avatar

That’s debatable but your comment is 100% correct!

Labeeb's avatar

It’s all a game, there are in lock step.

Derrick Moore's avatar

Agreed. American refueling tankers participated in the Israeli attack.

Hala's avatar

No he can’t. Everything that shaped Israel is from the aid they have not stopped receiving and its existence is tied to the US continuing that support.

Bleepo's avatar

Trump’s words are empty. He is at the command of Israel, he just wants it to look like he’s holding the cards. He’s not.

M. Layfield's avatar

Trump is getting his comeuppance. I don’t see Israel backing down, nor Iran.

John Costello's avatar

if Israel drops an atomic bomb on Iran and tells the major nations of the west that it faced possible annihilation and was forced to act decisively, the record says their excuse will ultimately be accepted.

I think we have to hope the voices that are certainly urging that, don't get amplified by events.

Mark Clark's avatar

I read a few weeks ago that China sent word via Pakistan that if Israel deploys nuclear ordinance, China will react in kind.

John Costello's avatar

so about that report, we're anxious to see it

musicbob's avatar

That’s quite an assertion. I’d be very interested in reading the article you are referring to. Could you provide a link for us?

Shirley Starke's avatar

I would love to read it too. It is very assuring.

musicbob's avatar

"radio silence"... just crickets since my link request. Oh well.

Shirley Starke's avatar

Maybe we could find it on Google. If we do, we should post it here.

musicbob's avatar

...my obvious feeling, originally, was that the article simply never existed... and until I actually see it, that "feeling" will remain unchanged. Yeah, we could try a search, which will undoubtedly be wasted time for us... but perhaps I'll give it just a (very) cursory try later in the day.

John Costello's avatar

that is very hard to believe,not the report, the threat

John Michael's avatar

Believe it sir! This is the world we live in.

John Costello's avatar

I see, thanks for the report

John Costello's avatar

look at all the trouble you've put these fine folk to

shame on ya

John Michael's avatar

Yep, agree. Kinda the way Shitler is going to deal with the mid-terms. Did you see him totally decompensate on that interview? That is a man that wouldn’t think twice about frying us all because he didn’t get what he wants.

Omid Souresrafil MBBS PhD FHRS's avatar

IDF cannot pick its nose without the US.

But this all a charade. Still think Trump will sign a deal with Iran? What do Zarif Soros and the Koch brothers think?

Kevin's avatar

Israel owns Trump and Congress.

Lou's avatar

Hit Lebanon, you get hit. It's pretty simple logic that you don't need a degree to understand. It's actually working class street law for every action there's a consequence. They were warned without change from the outset.

Dengie Boy's avatar

I would wager the Iranians now wish they had used this policy of deterrence when Israel was openly carrying out genocide in Gaza.

Shirley Starke's avatar

It's still openly carrying out genocide in Gaza.

Laurie Kolb Ware's avatar

Israel is destroying Lebanon. They deserve it. Leave Lebanon alone!

Janis Elliott's avatar

maybe Iran needs to. continue for for 3 weeks instead if 1 week..this will give them the answer on Trumps effectiveness or his failure to stop israel

Shirley Starke's avatar

He's completely ineffective in stopping Israel. I think Iran knows it too.

Ed Protas's avatar

It is beyond my understanding how any country in the Middle East could conclude that Israel can be a neighbor. It has become what Nazi Germany was; a regime bent on total conquest, and total extermination. And to them this means all non-Jews. Extermination!

Barry Brenesal's avatar

What is this thing called "credibility" that Trump possesses, and which Israel can wound or destroy? Which nations see this? Aside from the MAGA Republicans and the neo-cons that cluster around him, there doesn't seem to be anyone who takes him seriously at this time. Or many members of his team. It remains to be seen whether Trump to act in such a way as to ignore the Israeli mafia; and if not that, then what...?

He worked himself into a corner, then discovered it was a bad place to be. I suppose he could try to invade Greenland, but he's never enjoyed cold weather, and as for beating Cuba, he can't rumba.

Hell, like his country, he can't dance at all. Because as everybody knows, we have two right feet.

osman bakhach's avatar

Trump wants Iran to bleed Israel white.

Allow me to play The Devil's Advocate: I maintain that USA does not mind "shared regional Hegemony" between Israel and Iran for decades to come.

Kevin KC Flynn's avatar

Didn’t John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt warn us about all of this in 2006?

Filtering The Noise's avatar

Sharp as always, and the interceptor arithmetic is the part most people miss. One thing the framing underplays though: the clock here is not just military, it is economic, and that compresses Trump’s timeline faster than the missile math suggests.

The most likely scenario you lay out, another round of strikes with Trump staying out, assumes he has the luxury of time. But the strait has been effectively closed for months, the EIA has Brent sitting around $106 and sees global inventories drawing down through this quarter. Every week the disruption holds, the economic cost compounds. Iran’s real leverage may not be that it can outlast Israel’s interceptors. It is that it can outlast the world’s tolerance for triple-digit oil while Trump watches.

That reframes the $12 billion sticking point. If oil forces Trump’s hand before the military picture resolves, the asset release stops looking like a concession and starts looking cheap against the alternative. Tehran may be counting on the oil market to do what its negotiators cannot.

Which fits Qalibaf’s line. The missiles are not only aimed at Israel’s air defenses. They are aimed at the price of a barrel.