Re: New Middle East Reports

On 7/19/2026 2:11 PM, Dude wrote:
> On 12/5/2025 6:49 PM, Dude wrote:
>> "The situation in Lebanon offers a compelling example of a new Middle 
>> East where Israel’s reach is near ubiquitous. The Iran-led “axis of 
>> resistance,” of which Hezbollah has been a central part, is a shadow 
>> of its former self.
>>
>> Iran, battered by Israel in a brief June war, is weaker. Syria, after 
>> the fall of the Assad regime last year, is no longer a friend of 
>> Tehran; nor is it the pipeline for Iranian arms to Hezbollah that it 
>> once was.
>>
>> The region is adapting to what Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a prominent 
>> political scientist in the United Arab Emirates, calls an “imperial 
>> Israel,” a country that will kill enemies anywhere: from Lebanon to 
>> Syria, Gaza to Iran, Yemen to Qatar.
>>
>> Pre-emptive Israeli strikes are the new norm." - Roger Cohen
>>
>> Imperial Israel in the New Middle East
>> New York Times, Nov. 26, 2025
>  >
> Apparently, Israel wants the US to go to war with Iran. They have wanted 
> this for a long time.
> 
> "It’s understandable why this is the case. Since 1979, Iran has been 
> incredibly hostile to Israel to the point of threatening to destroy the 
> country and by funding terrorist groups in the surrounding countries 
> that routinely attack Israel.
> 
> But Iran is not Palestine, it’s not Gaza, it’s not even Lebanon. It’s a 
> much more powerful country, a much larger country and the goals that 
> Israel would have in Iran are much harder to achieve.
> 
> Israel could never take on Iran on their own. We have seen now what it 
> looks like and even the US had to back down because of the economic 
> costs of such a war. But that’s precisely why they want the US on board, 
> because with US backing of a more protracted war, they might be able to 
> pull it off.
> 
> In Trump, Israel thought they had their ticket.
> 
> Trump is easy to manipulate with some simple flattery, he’s fueled by 
> the Evangelical base which would welcome such a war and he has a pre- 
> existing bone to pick with Iran.
> 
> As I said, I understand why Israel wants to go to war with Iran and why 
> it wants the US to join in. But at the end of the day, I care about my 
> own country first, and I don’t want such a war.
> 
> Neither did the Obama administration, which is why they put together the 
> JCPOA, otherwise known as the Iran nuclear deal.
> 
> Critics of this deal were upset that it allowed Iran to access 
> previously frozen funds, which allowed them to continue funding their 
> proxies. The Netanyahu government was amongst the critics of this deal 
> for that very reason.
> 
> They thought they could push the US into resolving this problem once and 
> for all but the bet has blown up in their face. Because now, not only is 
> Iran rapidly accelerating towards nuclear weapons in absence of the 
> JCPOA, but now they are getting $300 billion from the US government.
> 
> This is essentially all of the bad parts of the JCPOA with none of the 
> good parts.
> 
> But this is what you get when you get in bed with a guy like Trump. At 
> the end of the day, Trump cares only about Trump. Any war like this one 
> was going to be costly for the American economy and that means it’d be 
> costly for the midterms, costly for Trump’s popularity and costly for 
> Trump’s 2028 run (which he very likely believes he will be able to pull 
> off). Trump was always going to bail on this project.
> 
> So the Israelis, and Netanyahu in particular, are going to be left 
> holding the bag on this one.
> 
> They will now have to deal with an Iran that is much more radical, more 
> emboldened and more powerful than the one that they were dealing with 
> before this war." - Judy, X
 >

"The Middle East was wrecked by the Arabs 1,300 years ago during the 
Islamic conquests. Since then, it has never been a quiet place. Islam is 
an expansionist ideology, and, therefore, Muslims are unable to live in 
peace with anyone, even their own kind.

Do you really think that if there were no Israel, Muslims would stop 
killing Muslims in Sudan, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Somalia, etc., Muslims 
would stop killing Christians in Nigeria and Egypt, Muslims would stop 
killing Kurds in Iraq and Turkey, Muslims would stop killing Druze in 
Syria, Iranian Muslim bigots would stop killing women for not wearing 
the hijab, and Muslims would stop committing terrorist acts all over the 
world?

But for you it’s only Israel that prevents the Middle East from becoming 
a peaceful region. That is a very interesting point of view from a 
psychiatric perspective, considering that more than a million Muslims 
have been killed by other Muslims in the MENA over the last ten years 
alone." - Glad, Quora