Standing alone, recent statements by the Trump administration unusually critical of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s current Syrian bombing decision-making should concern us. In the context of his apparent intent to have Israel assume a continuing, proactive role as the regional super power and Trump’s aim to pacify the Middle East and expand U.S. influence there, it should be cause for even deeper concern. Frankly, we fear that a serious confrontation between them is looming. It is important, now more than ever, that President Trump appreciates the contributions Israel’s new role can have on the interests of both Israel and the United States.
The Times of Israel is reporting that the White House is alarmed by Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Syrian bombing policy. They cite “multiple officials” in the Trump administration as “branding the premier a ‘madman’ and a child who just won’t behave… Bibi acted like a madman. He bombs everything all the time…. This could undermine what Trump is trying to do.”
But the real anxiousness in the Trump camp likely is not about some one-off bombing of Syria in support of the Druze or even about Hamas targets in Gaza, but rather about the bigger picture, according to the Jerusalem Post. The Post says that Israeli leaders believe that the approximately forty years of Oslo-style arrangements, in which the West pressured Israel into territorial withdrawals and restraint against emerging enemy threats, has proven to be an utter failure. It says “Containment’ policy – which prioritized diplomacy over decisive military triumphs against Jihadist adversaries – has failed.”
So, according to the Post, over the past 20 months, Israel has moved to thinking proactively to assert both dominance along its borders and strategic ascendancy against threats farther away. It now seeks a better balance between diplomacy and the use of force to overcome enemy threats,
Israel will now make fierce, overwhelming and surprising strikes against the enemy and needs to keep its enemies constantly off-balance.
Thus, Israel will no longer accept the notion of “quiet for quiet” but use its strength “to definitively neutralize adversaries.” All of this says the Post “is based on a clear strategic prism that stems from a realistic understanding of the region. Israelis and their leaders understand that the set of rules by which the worst actors in the Middle East operate are ideological, attritional and genocidal – not accommodational or transactional.
Also, according to the Post, no matter what security arrangement can be made, Israel will no longer sit back and rely on gathering intelligence until threats reach outsize proportions. Rather, Israel will proactively and regularly intervene over border threats.
Plainly, this dynamic will sometimes be inconsistent with the Trump pathway in the Middle East. But everyone, particularly, President Trump, should keep in mind what happened in the recent joint U.S./Israeli action against Iran.
