By C.J. Atkins
Photos: People’s World\YouTube Screenshots\Wikimedia Commons
Donald Trump did not want Israel to bomb Iran, at least not yet. Benjamin Netanyahu ordered airstrikes anyway, and now the U.S. has been pulled closer to an all-out war in the Middle East—which is exactly what the Israeli prime minister wanted.
Hundreds of Israeli warplanes struck targets across Iran Friday morning local time, carrying out hits on nuclear facilities, demolishing command-and-control centers, and assassinating scientists and military leaders. While the scale of the damage appears to be limited overall, most reports suggest this is only the opening salvo of a more extensive Israeli offensive.
Retaliation from Iran was a given, of course, and drones are already hitting Tel Aviv at the moment this article is being published.
As late as Thursday, Trump was publicly opposing an Israeli attack on Iran, claiming his administration was “fairly close” to an agreement on halting Iran’s nuclear development efforts. It was Trump himself who killed the previous Iran nuclear deal in 2018 and imposed damaging sanctions on the country’s economy, and then ordered the killing of a top Iranian general two years later.
Just hours before Israel’s bombers hit Tehran, the U.S. president was telling the press he didn’t want Israel “going in because that would blow it,” referring to a scheduled Sunday meeting between U.S. and Iranian negotiators in Oman. Waffling though, he also said an attack “might help” pressure Iran’s leaders to give in to U.S. demands. Axios reports that two Israeli officials say Trump was only pretending to oppose the strikes in front of the media while privately giving a green light.
Regardless, by Friday morning, Trump was fully on board with Netanyahu’s newest war, posting on his Truth social media platform: “I gave Iran a chance to make a deal. I told them, in the strongest of words, to ‘just do it’…They are all DEAD now, and it will only get worse….READ MORE…
