pushing <\/a>the Netanyahu government to reach an accommodation with Damascus. In Lebanon, too, the US continues to play a defining role in determining Israeli actions, with any possible confrontation between Hezbollah and Israel said to be dependent upon Washington\u2019s green light.<\/p>\nWhat influence Israel could wield over US action in Iran, according to many, is uncertain, even to the point that Washington could enter negotiations with no regard for Israeli concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a worry that Donald Trump will not strike in Iran, which will continue to endanger Israel, and instead negotiate a conclusion that\u2019s good for him as a peacemaker and leave the regime in place,\u201d Netanyahu\u2019s former aide from the early 90s and political pollster, Mitchell Barak, told Al Jazeera from West Jerusalem. \u201cHe\u2019s transactional. That\u2019s what he does. It\u2019ll be like Gaza. Israel will secure their ultimate victory, then lose control to the US, whose interests \u2013 under Trump \u2013 don\u2019t always align with ours.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Big Bad Wolf\u2019<\/p>\n
While analysts\u2019 expectations that Netanyahu could influence Trump\u2019s actions in Iran may be limited, their sense that a fresh war would buy the Israeli prime minister relief from his current difficulties seems universal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIran is Israel\u2019s \u2018Big Bad Wolf\u2019,\u201d Chatham House\u2019s Yossi Mekelberg said of the geopolitical opponent that many in Israel believe exists only to ensure Israel\u2019s destruction.<\/p>\n
Mekelberg added that a war with Iran would serve as a useful distraction from Netanyahu\u2019s domestic troubles, such as an inquiry into government failures related to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, his attempt to weaken the oversight powers of the judiciary, and his ongoing corruption trials.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a saying in Hebrew: \u2018the righteous have their work done by others.\u2019 I\u2019m not for a moment saying that Netanyahu is righteous, but I\u2019m sure he\u2019s keen on having his work done by others,\u201d Mekelberg said.<\/p>\n
War fears<\/p>\n
How much public appetite there may be for a confrontation with Iran is unclear.<\/p>\n
Israel was able to heavily damage Iran during the conflict it started in June last year. But Iran was also able to repeatedly pierce Israel\u2019s defences, making it clear that the Israeli public is not safe from the wars its state pursues in the region.<\/p>\n
The threat \u2013 rather than the reality \u2013 of a confrontation with Iran also serves the prime minister\u2019s ends, Goldberg noted. \u201cNetanyahu has no need for a war. He doesn\u2019t really need to do anything other than survive, which he\u2019s proven adept at,\u201d the analyst said, referring to the absence of any credible political rival, as well as the risk that an actual war may highlight Israel\u2019s diplomatic weakness in its dealings with the US.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s this joke phrase that became popular with those resisting Netanyahu\u2019s judicial reform: \u2018This time he\u2019s done\u2019,\u201d Goldberg said. \u201cNetanyahu\u2019s never done. He committed a genocide, and all people in Israel can object to is the management of it. He\u2019s currently losing military and diplomatic influence across the region, and few are noticing. I can\u2019t imagine that this will be \u2018it\u2019 either.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the prospect of a conflict between the United States and Iran looms, analysts within Israel have questioned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,5620,12,801,803,2562,129,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-449208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-benjamin-netanyahu","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-iran","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-israel-iran-conflict","14":"tag-middle-east","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}