Why Netanyahu Would Risk It All to Hit Iran
Netanyahu has spent decades trying to pull the US into war with Iran.
Trita Parsi gives a blunt reading of Benjamin Netanyahu’s motives when Asbed asks what incentive Israel’s leader would have to derail US-Iran talks. Parsi’s answer reaches back decades: he describes Netanyahu doing everything he can over the last couple of decades to pull the United States and Iran into war, and wanting that war to end with no Iranian nuclear program, no Islamic Republic, and an Iranian state so weakened it cannot pose a challenge to Israel for decades.
Parsi argues Netanyahu is closer to that goal than ever, because the United States, from his standpoint, finally attacked Iran. The provocative core of the clip is Parsi’s claim that Netanyahu may be willing to sabotage a US peace effort to force Trump’s hand into war, even at great cost, because he believes his legacy rests on what he does to Iran rather than on the US-Israel relationship itself.
To show this is not speculation, Parsi points to precedent. He recalls 2015, when Netanyahu addressed the US Congress in an unprecedented move and spoke against the sitting president, upsetting even supporters of Israel who felt he was risking the Israeli-American relationship. The open question Parsi leaves hanging is whether Netanyahu would take that same risk against Trump specifically, and his answer carries a chilling logic: if Netanyahu is not going to be prime minister for much longer, the calculation may be that it is worth it. For audiences following the Iran War and the role of Israel in shaping US policy in the Middle East, Parsi’s portrait of a leader weighing his legacy against alliance stability is both pointed and highly shareable.
Transcript
Trita Parsi: Well, first of all, we have seen him do everything he can for the last couple of decades to get the U.S. and Iran into a war. And he wants that war to conclude in such a manner that there is no nuclear program in Iran, there is no Islamic Republic, and that the Iranian state has been so profoundly weakened that it will not be able to pose a challenge or a deterrence against Israel for decades to come. He has not yet achieved that, but he's closer to it than he's ever been before, because finally the United States, from his standpoint, did attack Iran. if he manages to if the option he has is to sabotage a US peace effort in order to move in this direction and force Trump's hand into a war, it will obviously be very costly but I think from Netanyahu's standpoint, he thinks that this is what will seal his legacy and his legacy is more important in terms of what he manages to do to Iran or get the US to do to Iran rather than the US-Israel relationship itself. He has already shown