For decades, journalists, analysts, and activists worked painstakingly to uncover and prove the way that Israel leverages its “special relationship” with the United States to drive US policy. They traced the money spent by its lobbying arm, uncovered stories of its political meddling, and carefully mapped out the networks of influence it used to get its way in Washington.
And then Trump officials just came out and admitted it earlier this week.
Many commentators have made the case that the rapidly escalating war with Iran that Donald Trump has plunged the country into has little to do with defending US interests but is instead being fought, paid, and died for by Americans because Israel wanted it. Thanks to a combination of reporting, public statements, and several open admissions by people close to the White House, we can now say that’s objectively true.
At least three separate, high-ranking US officials close to Trump have now publicly said that the United States was forced into starting this war by Israel. Explaining to reporters on Monday why Trump had decided to launch the war this past weekend, Secretary of State Marco Rubio put it in remarkably explicit detail:
it was abundantly clear that if Iran came under attack by anyone — the United States, Israel, or anyone — they were going to respond, and respond against the United States. The orders had been delegated down to the field commanders. . . . We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action, we knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.
Later that day, coming out of a classified briefing on the war, House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters something almost identical:
Because Israel was determined to act with or without the US, our commander in chief, and the administration, and the officials I just named had a very difficult decision…
Auteur: Branko Marcetic
