"Benjamin Netanyahu interrupted an uncharacteristically long silence over the Iran conflict this week with a video commentary insisting he had full coordination with Donald Trump, with whom he spoke almost daily. The insistence that all was rosy in the US-Israeli relationship followed weeks of reports in the domestic press that Israel was no longer being consulted over the Iran conflict, and even less over Pakistani-brokered peace talks."
"Such is the scepticism over Netanyahu's trustworthiness among the general public and independent press that the immediate reaction among observers to his video statement was speculation that the reality could be even worse than they had imagined. He is doing so much talking about how great the relationship is that it makes me rather concerned about how much tension there is, said Dahlia Scheindlin, an American-Israeli political consultant and pollster. I wouldn't be surprised, as the war is clearly going very poorly from all perspectives related to the original goals."
"The US president and the Israeli prime minister have long presented mirror images of each other. They have both pioneered populist methods to dominate domestic politics, cutting away at the constitutional underpinning of the very systems that brought them to power, with little regard for past norms or constraints. Since 28 February, when they brought the Gulf to a standstill with a devastating US-Israeli assault on Iran, they have bound their fate together so tightly that it will be very hard for either of them to unstick themselves from its legacy."
"Netanyahu spent decades trying to persuade a succession of US presidents to join Israel in a war against the Islamic Republic. He went to unprecedented lengths for a foreign leader wading into US domestic politics, in particular when it came to undermining the multilateral nuclear deal with Iran of 2015, which had been Barack Obama's flagship foreign policy achievement. Netanyahu helped coax Trump to walk out of that deal in"
Netanyahu issued a video statement asserting full coordination with Donald Trump on the Iran conflict, describing frequent communication. The claim followed weeks of reports that Israel was not being consulted on Iran and even less on Pakistani-brokered peace talks. Public and independent observers reacted with skepticism, suggesting conditions could be worse than expected. Dahlia Scheindlin linked Netanyahu’s emphasis on a strong relationship to concern about underlying tension and poor progress toward original war goals. Netanyahu and Trump are portrayed as political mirror images, using populist tactics that weaken constitutional constraints. Their actions since a major US-Israeli assault on Iran have tightly bound their fates, making separation difficult. Netanyahu previously pushed US presidents toward war with Iran and worked to undermine the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal, helping Trump exit it.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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