{"id":317613,"date":"2026-06-29T12:01:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T11:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=317613"},"modified":"2026-06-23T08:53:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T07:53:40","slug":"israels-suicidal-rupture-with-the-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2026\/06\/israels-suicidal-rupture-with-the-u-s\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel\u2019s Suicidal Rupture with the U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

When Jewish Upon a Star – by Mr. Fish<\/p><\/div>\n

Israel is turning on its last important ally in an act of suicidal hubris. <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

22 Jun 2026\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0Israel is sabotaging the negotiations with Iran and alienating its last important ally by refusing to halt its attacks<\/a> on Lebanon and withdraw from its occupation of the south. It is determined to reignite a regional conflagration that could see Iran perpetually close the Strait of Hormuz and plunge<\/a> the global economy into a global depression<\/a>. And it continues<\/a> its genocide<\/a> in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Israel is contaminated by racism and genocidal violence. It is blinded by a repugnant moral superiority. It is corrupted by a class of Zionist billionaires in the U.S. who use their wealth to bend foreign policy to serve Israeli interests. It is equipped<\/a> with a nuclear arsenal Israeli officials have repeatedly<\/a> threatened<\/a> to use.<\/p>\n

It is a menace to the region. It is a menace to itself. And it is a menace to us.<\/p>\n

The first round of a quadrilateral meeting between the United States, Iran and Pakistani and Qatari mediators in Switzerland on Sunday \u2014 where the Iranian delegation refused<\/a> to take part in a planned handshake and joint photo with its U.S. counterparts \u2014 focused on the U.S. implementing commitments set in the Memorandum of Understanding<\/a> (MoU) for a preliminary 60-day period.<\/p>\n

But the closure of the Strait of Hormuz \u2014 following Israeli attacks on Lebanon \u2014 disrupted the talks. The closure sent Trump into another one of his habitual tantrums, when he reportedly told<\/a> \u201cFox News\u201d correspondent Trey Yingst he had informed Iranian negotiators if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, \u201c[Y]ou won\u2019t even make it back to your fucking country.\u201d<\/p>\n

When told that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian continues to assert Iran\u2019s right to enrich uranium \u2014 a right guaranteed<\/a> by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons which the U.S. co-founded \u2014 Trump reportedly said \u201c[President Pezeshkian] better watch his mouth. He better shape up or we\u2019ll take over the rest of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIran must immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble,\u201d Trump added<\/a> in a post on Truth Social, referring to Hezbollah. \u201cIf they don\u2019t, we\u2019ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!!!\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s threats prompted the Iranian delegation to depart the Swiss venue, while Ghalibaf dismissed<\/a> Trump\u2019s tirades in a post<\/a> on X. \u201cDon\u2019t they ever stop to think that if their threats had worked, they wouldn\u2019t have reached today\u2019s desperation? We give the Americans\u2019 threats no weight whatsoever,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The meeting concluded with \u201cagreeing on a 60-day roadmap toward a final agreement and establishing mechanisms to advance technical negotiations\u201d under the MoU, according to IRNA News Agency.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s vision<\/a> of a \u201cGreater Israel,\u201d designed to ensure Israel\u2019s military dominance throughout the Middle East, depends on harnessing the wealth and military power of the U.S.<\/p>\n

Over two-thirds of the major arms and munitions Israel imports \u2014 without which it could not carry out its genocide of the Palestinians, turn southern Lebanon into a moonscape and bomb Iran, Syria and Qatar \u2014 are manufactured<\/a> and provided<\/a> by the U.S. And because the Israel lobby, for decades, has owned<\/a> Congress, because its Zionists allies police<\/a> and control<\/a> the media, because it is able to siphon tens of billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to sustain its military adventurism, Israel is blind to its own limitations. It is willing to inflict harm on its allies, including the U.S., in service to itself.<\/p>\n

And that is what it now intends to do. Even the obtuse administration of Donald Trump \u2014 which has spent over $34 billion on the war with Iran and which WarCosts estimates<\/a> at over $214 billion when wider economic costs are factored in \u2014 has figured this out.<\/p>\n

Israel is apoplectic about the MoU, which was signed<\/a> virtually on Wednesday, that leaves the disposition of Iranian stockpiled enriched nuclear materials to later negotiations, lifts the U.S. naval blockade, releases frozen Iranian assets and issues waivers to allow Iranian oil sales.<\/p>\n

The MoU declares an \u201cimmediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts.\u201d It proposes a 60-day negotiation period before reaching a final deal, a $300 billion Reconstruction and Development Fund, the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iran\u2019s periphery and the termination of all international and unilateral sanctions.<\/p>\n

The rhetoric unleashed by Israeli politicians and pundits about Trump and those in his administration over the MoU \u2014 reportedly<\/a> arranged without Israeli participation \u2014 is venomous. No one in the Trump administration is immune. Trump\u2019s hapless special envoys and unapologetic Zionist assets, Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, were castigated<\/a> as \u201ctwo little Jews\u201d by Yinon Magal, a former Knesset member-turned-pundit who is close to Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump is a \u201closer.\u201d Vice President JD Vance is<\/a> \u201cscum.\u201d \u201cIsrael Hayom\u201d \u2014 the Israeli newspaper owned by billionaire Miriam Adelson, one of Trump\u2019s biggest financial donors \u2014 in an op-ed accused<\/a> Trump of betraying Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world,\u201d Vance retorted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It is more than ironic that Israel would push Trump \u2014 who gives the word bribery<\/a> a bad name \u2014 into opposing Israel. But Israel has overplayed its hand. The Arab and Muslim world and the Global South detests Washington for its backing of the genocide and betrayal of the Palestinians. Israel and its Zionist supporters goaded the U.S. into made-for-Israel wars in Iraq, Libya, Syria and then, another war with Iran. The alliance and military debacles have turned Israel and the U.S. into pariah states.<\/p>\n

Now, Israel is turning on the only ally it has left.<\/p>\n

The failure by the U.S. to continue to subjugate its interests to those of Israel, even at the cost of economic suicide, is, in the eyes of entitled Zionists, unforgiveable. Israel expects the Zionist billionaire class and the Israel lobby in the U.S., as in the past, to bend to its will.<\/p>\n

The Obama White House signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2016 with Israel pledging<\/a> $3.8 billion per year in military aid from 2019-2028. Congress authorized an additional $17.9 billion in military aid to Israel to sustain the genocide.<\/p>\n

Between 1946 and 2024, the U.S. is estimated<\/a> to have provided Israel with over $300 billion in military and economic assistance, adjusted for inflation.<\/p>\n

The cost of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan alone are estimated<\/a>, by Brown University, to be between $4 to $6 trillion, with much of that to be paid in the coming decades in the form of medical and disability payments to war veterans and their families.<\/p>\n

This time the price is too high.<\/p>\n

The defeat of Israel and the U.S. in the war on Iran has dealt a mortal blow to the project of \u201cGreater Israel\u201d and the Abraham Accords<\/a>. It has crippled the Trump presidency, driving up<\/a> inflation, plunging<\/a> Trump\u2019s approval rating to dismal levels, paralyzing<\/a> the economies of Gulf allies and threatening<\/a> Republican control of the House and the Senate in the November elections.<\/p>\n

Israel has no intention of catering to Trump. It could not care less what happens to him, his administration or the effects of the looming economic catastrophe. But Trump, who always has been and always will be out for Trump alone, is not going to sacrifice himself for someone else\u2019s benefit or airy ideals.<\/p>\n

Israeli leaders are so out of touch with reality they are threatening to go to war with Iran without<\/em> the U.S. Avigdor Lieberman, the former defense minister and current leader of the far-right Yisrael Beiteinu party, has called<\/a> for Israel to build a ballistic missile force and said<\/a> that if he was in charge, he would direct the Mossad to overthrow the Iranian government.<\/p>\n

Israel has no intention<\/a> of leaving<\/a> southern Lebanon, the Golan Heights<\/a> \u2014 and other<\/a> areas<\/a> of Syria it began occupying following the overthrow of Assad \u2014 Gaza \u2014 where it occupies 70 percent of the land \u2014 or halting its savage ethnic cleansing<\/a> in the West Bank. It intends to find some place on the globe to ship the two million de facto prisoners of concentration camp<\/a> Gaza. Palestinians in Gaza are still being slaughtered \u2014 over 1,000 have been killed<\/a> by Israel since the supposed ceasefire went into effect last October \u2014 and huddle in overcrowded<\/a> tent cities without<\/a> adequate food, clean water or medical care.<\/p>\n

These goals may be achievable in the short term, but in the long term they signal the demise of the Zionist state. Democrats are increasingly shedding<\/a> the albatross of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which endorsed<\/a> more than 100 Republicans who voted against certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election. \u201cAmerica First\u201d Republicans and the right wing are retreating into their traditional antisemitism.<\/p>\n

The genocide<\/a> ripped the veil off Israel and exposed its dark and murderous visage to the global community. The war on Iran, which Netanyahu sold<\/a> as an easy win, exposed Israel\u2019s cynical manipulation of the U.S. to the Trump White House.<\/p>\n

Israelis, intoxicated by the fantasy of being the chosen people, do not have friends. They do not have allies. They have those they use and those they slaughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo more insane aid with no conditions, but a condition attached to every dollar and every missile,\u201d the Israeli journalist Gideon Levy writes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Behave or pay the price. You can no longer do as you please: assassinate, abuse, violate national sovereignty and international law with impunity. In such an atmosphere, Israel will no longer be able to continue to thumb its nose at the international community, for which there is no more unifying issue than opposition to the occupation.<\/p>\n

Whether it wants to or not, Israel will have to take this into consideration. The first cracks have already appeared, and how: a deal made with Iran while entirely disregarding Israel, which for years disregarded the United States and the entire world. This is only the beginning: A world that was horrified by what Israel did in the Gaza Strip will want a reckoning. A genocidal state can no longer be the darling of the Western world. A state whose citizens carry out pogroms daily, with the cooperation of its military, will not be a part of the family of nations. The dream is starting to come true. It will be a nightmare.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The game is up. The Israeli domination of the U.S. political system is coming to an end. Israel\u2019s inability to read U.S. and global opinion \u2014 or its own population, where over 90 percent believe Israel lost<\/a> its war against Iran \u2014 along with its stubborn belief that its old levers of power can still work, illustrate a leadership that has rendered itself deaf, dumb and blind. It can and will do a lot of damage. It can and will inflict more death and suffering. But it is cannibalizing itself.<\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize\u2013winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years for\u00a0<\/em>The New York Times,\u00a0where he served as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief. He previously worked overseas for\u00a0<\/em>The Dallas Morning News,\u00a0The Christian Science Monitor, and<\/em> NPR. He used to be the host of the Emmy Award-nominated <\/em>RT America show\u00a0<\/em>On Contact.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original – chrishedges.substack.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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