Scoop: White House loses trust in Israeli government as Middle East spirals

 

Scoop: White House loses trust in Israeli government as Middle East spirals

The Biden administration has in recent weeks grown increasingly distrustful of what the Israeli government says about its military and diplomatic plans in the multi-front war it is fighting, four U.S. officials told Axios.

Why it matters: The worsening trust crisis is magnified by Israel's planned retaliation against Iran for its massive missile attack, which requires coordination with the U.S. in case Iran responds.

The Biden administration isn't opposed to Israel responding to the Iranian attack last week but wants it to be measured, U.S. officials said.

"Our trust of the Israelis is very low right now and for a good reason," one U.S. official said.

Behind the scenes: Two U.S. officials told Axios that during a call on Friday White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told Israel's minister for strategic affairs Ron Dermer that the U.S. expects "clarity and transparency" from Israel about its plans to retaliate against Iran because it will have implications for U.S. forces and interests in the region. — Axios

And …

Israel defense minister cancels visit with Pentagon chief

Israel has canceled a planned Wednesday meeting between its Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the Pentagon confirmed Tuesday.

“We were just informed that Minister Gallant will be postponing his trip to Washington, D.C.,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters. “Secretary Austin looks forward to seeing him soon.”

Austin was set to meet with his Israeli counterpart at the Pentagon on Wednesday as the U.S. ally was debating how to respond to Iran’s attack last week. Gallant was also supposed to meet with White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. 

But hours before Gallant was to begin his travels, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told him he did not approve of the visit and that he should wait until the Israeli leader speaks with President Biden, multiple outlets reported. The two have not spoken in nearly 50 days amid tensions over Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip and conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Netanyahu also delayed the trip to wait for approval of his government’s political-security cabinet on Israel’s planned actions against Iran, according to Israel’s N12News.

The prime minister’s office told the outlet that the move was a normal order of operations and Gallant’s trip didn’t make sense as long as Israel had not made a clear decision on Iran. — The Hill

Our Take: "Our trust of the Israelis is very low right now and for a good reason," one U.S. official said.

Whether this is true is largely irrelevant. The way I see it, Netanyahu controls Blinken—who pledged fealty to Bibi after October 7th ("I come to you, not as an American diplomat, but as a Jew..."), Biden and Harris are mostly ignored, given tasks that keep them busy and out of the way, and Jake Sullivan is present but forgotten because nobody respects him.

So I actually buy the notion that many of the folks in the West Wing were in the dark on the details of the evolving situation, not because their hands are clean, but because nobody respected them enough to fill them in. But people in the State Department likely knew, along with some people in the White House, and probably the Pentagon.

But the real story, here, is that the US told Iran, China, India, and the rest of the Middle East that a peace deal was basically being signed—just hammering out final details—then BOOM! Nasrallah is dead.

Whether or not the US knew is irrelevant. The world thinks that we knew, and that we were in on the deception. From what I can tell, this is not being received around the world as a small thing. A breach of trust has occurred, and a political leader is suddenly dead when he had been promised peace. Surely, every other world leader has at least had the fleeting thought, "Could that happen to me?" since hearing the news.

This also isn't the first time the United States has done something like this, as this was the tactic used to finish off both Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi, who were both hiding from their respective lynch mob, when they promised to be spared if they came out and surrendered. Both ultimately did peacefully surrender, and both were brutally butchered in grotesque displays that were filmed and posted to the internet. Almost like a message to all the other rogue leaders out in the world who were thinking about crossing the Unipolar Hegemony.

So now the world sees us as a dangerous liability—perhaps even mentally unstable. Would that assessment be considered inaccurate? Doesn't that succinctly describe the mental patients now running our country?

But the dissent and distrust doesn't end in DC, because Netanyahu and his Defense Minister (Yoav Gallant) have been at odds since last spring, when Netanyahu fired Gallant (and immediately hired him back) after Gallant attended a rally calling for Netanyahu's resignation in a public display of defiance. Then Benny Gantz resigned from the government in June, the War Cabinet was dissolved, and Netanyahu became dependent on Gallant's willing participation, as his resignation or termination would now be less significant, because Netanyahu has elevated *minister without portfolio* Gideon Sa'ar to the Security Cabinet, as well as a new 3-man War Cabinet that includes Netanyahu and Gallant.

Even before this move happened, it has been speculated that Sa'ar would replace Gallant as Minister of Defense. Though Sa'ar has been a political rival of Netanyahu's, he shares in the vision of vanquished foes—whether he buys into Greater Israel is another, less relevant, question. As long as Sa'ar is thirsty for war, he will fit right into this sitcom from hell. — GhostofBasedPatrickHenry