Jake Wallis Simons writing for London’s Telegraph, has provided us with a superb analysis of the Israel/Iran situation and how hezbollah’s presence in southern Lebanon is affecting it.
He has pointed out the extraordinary weakness of President Trump’s response to Iran, and how Israel has managed to outmaneuver both Trump and Iran by making a tenuous, but possibly lasting, peace arrangement with Lebanon; one that rests on their mutual desire to rid southern Lebanon of Iran’s proxy, hezbollah.
You would do yourself a disservice not to read the entire commentary. So I’ll whet your interest with just a few excerpts below:
Israel has outfoxed Iran (and Donald Trump)
Two weeks ago, it looked like Iran had placed the American-Israeli alliance in checkmate. With a flourish of a felt-tip pen, Donald Trump signed a “memorandum of understanding” that freed Tehran from American hostilities, promised it hundreds of billions of dollars, and allowed the nuclear can to be kicked down the road.
As if that was not enough, Israel was obliged to cease operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon, tying its own hands while the jihadist group rained rockets and drones upon its northern towns.
This remarkable Iranian military and diplomatic coup, aided greatly by the Islamist regimes in Doha and Ankara, drove a wedge between Washington and Jerusalem, making Trump look like a weakling and a fool.
The beauty of the deal – from the Iranian point of view – was that the more the president criticised his ally Benjamin Netanyahu, berating him as “f—ing crazy” and having “no f—ing judgment”, the weaker and more foolish he looked.
Well, Trump may still look weak and foolish, but the same cannot be said of Netanyahu. With an election approaching in September or October, he is not just fighting for the lives of his people but his political life, too; that is just the sort of thing that has always focused his mind. Israel has responded with a military and diplomatic coup of its own, in the form of a deal with Lebanon.
For the first time in 44 years, Jerusalem and Beirut have agreed to a framework that recognises each other’s sovereignty and commits to dismantling Hezbollah along Israel’s northern border.
Did that get your attention? I suspect it did. And the rest of Mr. Simons’ piece is just as worthwhile. Again, I urge you to use the link (here it is again) and read every word.
When it comes to the Middle East, logic and common sense are, more and more, at a premium. This commentary is loaded with both.
