{"id":241045,"date":"2021-08-20T06:51:36","date_gmt":"2021-08-20T06:51:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=241045"},"modified":"2021-08-22T07:06:21","modified_gmt":"2021-08-22T07:06:21","slug":"israel-to-leverage-afghanistan-exit-to-get-us-to-flex-muscle-against-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=241045","title":{"rendered":"Israel to leverage Afghanistan exit to get US to \u2018flex muscle\u2019 against Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israel-Palestine News \u2013 If Americans Knew Aug 18, 2021<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Israeli insiders say Israel plans to use the \u2018humiliating surrender of the US to the Taliban\u2019 to lead Biden to \u2018flex US muscle toward Iran.\u2019 During his upcoming meeting with Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett\u2019s mission will be to convince Biden that Iran \u2018poses a tangible and significant threat to the entire world,\u2019 and that the U.S. must take action against Iran\u2026 (Israel has long been targeting Iran<\/a>)<\/em><\/h4>\n

By Ben Caspit, excerpted from Al-Monitor<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s possible to leverage events there in our favor [following the US departure from Afghanistan],\u201d a former senior Israeli intelligence source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. \u201cI think that the shock experienced by Biden and his people, the harsh public reaction in the US and in the international media could have the opposite effect now, similar to a pendulum effect. The humiliating surrender to the Taliban could actually lead Biden to toughen up<\/a>\u00a0and decide to flex US muscle\u00a0toward Iran, given the threat it poses to world peace and not just to the lives of local citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel would rather stay\u00a0focused on the\u00a0opportunities that could stem from the Afghan crisis. \u201cThere\u2019s an\u00a0opportunity<\/a>\u00a0here, too,\u201d a senior diplomatic source in Jerusalem told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. \u201cFirst of all, it seems to me that these events illustrate to Israel\u2019s allies in the Middle East that only one significant force remains in the world stable and determined enough to stand up to Iran without blinking. That force is Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

The diplomatic source added that\u00a0as Prime Minister Naftali Bennett heads for his first White House visit later this month, he \u201cmust convince Biden that the US, as leader of the free world, cannot afford a series of pullouts and defeats in the Middle East.\u201d Bennett is expected to tell the president that giving in to Iran after folding in Afghanistan could set off a\u00a0disastrous chain reaction<\/a>\u00a0with deleterious effects for generations to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt should be stressed,\u201d the source said, \u201cthat Israel does not and cannot have any complaints against the Americans for departing Afghanistan. It is neither fair nor moral to demand that the American taxpayer continue to fund a struggle for the freedom of the Afghan people, and it is the president\u2019s right to put a stop to the bloodletting in this sinkhole.\u201d Bennett\u2019s task will be to convince Biden that Iran is not Afghanistan: It poses a tangible and significant threat to the entire world, and the United States is not being asked at any stage to invade Iran or launch all-out war against it [sic]<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Americans are the only ones with a credible, significant military option that does not involve boots on the ground, to destroy\u00a0or at least severely damage Iran\u2019s nuclear infrastructure,\u201d said the diplomatic source. \u201cPutting that option firmly and seriously on the table, and displaying determination to deploy it, is the only way to break though the dead end reached in efforts to block Iran\u2019s nuclear program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bennett is now preparing for this mission, although a final date for his sit-down with Biden\u00a0has yet to be finalized. At the same time, Israeli intelligence is examining\u00a0the stunning intelligence failure in assessing Afghanistan\u2019s resilience in the face of the Taliban onslaught. \u201cThere are undoubtedly things that intelligence cannot measure, detect or identify,\u201d a former Israeli intelligence source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. \u201cOne can measure power, weapons, number of fighters, tanks and planes. It\u2019s harder to measure determination, staying power and willpower. Many intelligence assessments have come crashing down in the face of a deceptive reality. We must study the Afghan case so that we can prevent a similar intelligence failure here. Unlike the US, Israel cannot afford mistakes of this magnitude.\u201d<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Addendum:<\/strong> Analyst Ali Abunimah points out <\/a>that for years Israel \u201chas been waging a not-so-covert war against Iran<\/a>, attacking ships and facilities and\u00a0murdering scientists<\/a>.\u201d Abunimah reports that Eran Lerman, an Israeli army colonel and vice-president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, discusses how the US should allegedly respond to the \u201cblow to US prestige from the Afghanistan debacle.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo counter this impact as much as possible, it would be vital for the US to demonstrate \u2013 elsewhere, since the Afghan case is clearly beyond salvation \u2013 that it is not a spent force,\u201d Lerman\u00a0writes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Conveniently, the target he suggests for reinvigorated American belligerence just happens to be Israel\u2019s number one regional enemy, Iran\u2026<\/p>\n

Addendum 2<\/strong>: The Times of Israel<\/em> reported<\/a> on August 11th:<\/p>\n

Israel hosted US Central Intelligence Agency chief William Burns Tuesday for talks focused on Iran, with Jerusalem reportedly attempting to deter any American rapprochement with Tehran by presenting Iran\u2019s new president as a deranged misfit\u2026\u2026 Mossad official presented Burns with information intended to show Iran\u2019s President Ebrahim Raisi as untrustworthy and incapable of negotiating a new nuclear deal or sticking to his commitments, Channel 12 news reported\u2026<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ahead of a forthcoming meeting, insiders say Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will urge President Biden to prove to the world that America is not a spent force, following its Afghan humiliation. To do so Biden will be urged to get tough with Iran <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[60,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-241045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Afghanistan","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=241045"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241061,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241045\/revisions\/241061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=241045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=241045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=241045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}