Joseph Massad "Who Threatens the Arab World: Iran or the US and Israel?"

Good article.

a deepening ideological divide within right-wing American politics. On one side are Evangelical Christian and Jewish Zionists who support wars against Iran and the Palestinians; on the other are right-wing Christians who believe that America is being drawn into wars on behalf of Israel.

Similarly, many on the American left, including progressive Jews such as Congresswoman Sara Jacobs, argue that Israel has pulled the United States into war. Rather than seeing the US-Israeli imperialist attack as serving the bellicose American billionaire class that fully backs it, these right-wing and left-wing critics contend that Benjamin Netanyahu tricked Trump into attacking Iran primarily for Israel’s benefit.

However, it is crucial to understand that Israel’s bellicose policies are an element of the overall US strategy in the region and do not exist independently of it. It is hardly far-fetched that the US aims to intensify the Arab states’ hostility towards Iran and incite them to openly join the US-Israel attack.

Some right-wingers cite the fact that prominent American billionaires, including Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, Bernard Marcus and Paul Singer, have promoted hostility towards Iran for the past decade as proof that such figures are “Israel firsters”, rather than “America firsters”, and that Israel controls US foreign policy.

They ignore how major American defence industries and energy companies directly benefit and stand to make huge profits from this war. Palantir, Lockheed Martin, Exxon, Raytheon and Boeing can hardly be accused of being Israel firsters, even if, like the billionaires, they believe that Israel’s regional military dominance serves the interests of US imperialism.

Instead of framing their criticism of the attack on Iran as driven by the imperialist warmongering of US financial elites – for whom the genocidal Israeli state is both an asset and a proxy – these right-wingers accuse Israel of “controlling” Washington’s decisions, thus effectively exonerating the United States of responsibility.

Israel and its intelligence and military apparatus and personnel are tightly integrated into the US war machine, but this is not proof, as some might argue, of Israeli “control” over this system, but rather the result of the US subcontracting significant intelligence and military functions to a trustworthy proxy.

Both Maga and left-wing critics of the war have interpreted recent comments by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio as an admission that Israel dragged the US to war.

What they forget is that Washington – on which Israel is almost entirely dependent for weapons supplies – could have ordered Israel not to attack. But the US chose not to do so, meaning that it approved of Israel’s war plans and coordinated with it beforehand.