This War Should Not Fool Us
March 2, 2026
There are many questions about whether this war was necessary. Anyone listening to and believing Netanyahu, believes this war to be absolutely mandatory. He has been pushing for it for years. We all know how his single focus on Iran was a major cause of our security forces almost total loss of focus on Hamas prior to October 7.
There was much debate about whether Iran truly had any plans on developing a military nuclear program prior to the US reaching a nuclear agreement with Iran during the Obama Administration. Despite Netanyahu’s dissent with that agreement, nuclear experts around the world and in Israel all stated that it was a good agreement as long as there was the ability to fully monitor Iran’s nuclear installations. That was the key.
Netanyahu was not able to get the US Congress to vote against that agreement and he certainly didn’t have any leverage with Obama. While not a perfect agreement, it was decent and meant that Iran would not make any progress towards a military nuclear program for at least the next ten years. That was not satisfactory for Netanyahu.
Trump’s arrival to the White House gave Netanyahu another opportunity. Trump’s hatred of Obama was no secret and he started his administration by immediately canceling many of Obama’s actions. Although he spoke about leaving the nuclear agreement, prior to the elections, it was Netanyahu who succeeded in pushing him into this action with the promise that Iran would come crawling on their knees to Trump begging for a better agreement. Not only did that not happen, it actually pushed Iran into faster development of their nuclear program and uranium enrichment to levels that were close to nuclear weapon readiness. There are many experts who believe that this occurred more as an act to show the world that no one was going to tell Iran what they could or could not do, than actually being part of their original plan. We can clearly blame Netanyahu and Trump for Iran’s expedited nuclear weapons program.
Trump was furious at Netanyahu when Iran did not come crawling to him for a better agreement and even more so when Netanyahu called Biden to congratulate him on winning the presidential election. Trump is someone who holds a grudge indefinitely. However, he has a certain degree of pragmatism and temporarily puts grudges aside when it serves his personal purposes. This is what happened with his relationship with Netanyahu, however, no one, especially Netanyahu should think Trump has let his grudge go.
The motivations for this war are vastly different for Trump and Netanyahu. With regard to Trump, the majority of the US is against this military action in Iran and the claims are that Trump doesn’t have the authority for this action. It is clearly stated in the US Constitution that only Congress can declare war, not the President. That is the reason many past military actions are called actions or operations and not wars. However, even actions or operations at this level must also be approved by Congress. This is not the first time, and certainly not the last that Trump acts on his own with total disregard of the Constitution and Congress.
Trump doesn’t give a damn about the suffering of the Iranian people and never has despite anything he says as part of a script. He also doesn’t care about the ballistic missile program. Despite Netanyahu’s desperate pleading to Trump to include it as a demand in the negotiations prior to this war, Trump only had the nuclear program in his demands. This is due to his need to show that he is better than Obama and can get a better nuclear deal than Obama achieved. Inclusion of the ballistic missile program only changed as soon as the war began. Trump needed to justify his orders for the US armed forces to join Israel in the attack. His claim of Iran’s ballistic program being a danger to Americans and being able to hit the US is completely false. For that to happen, Iran would have to have ICBM’s (intercontinental ballistic missiles), which they don’t have nor has it been in any of their missile plans.
As opposed to past US President’ for whom support of Israel was based on having us as a strong ally in the unstable neighborhood of the Middle East, Trump’s interests in the Middle East are all centered on the Gulf States because of his business interests. He, his family and friends don’t have any significant business interests in Israel. They are all in the Gulf States and that takes all of their real focus. It is emphasized with this war. Netanyahu has been trying to get Trump to attack Iran for quite some time. The straw that broke the camel’s back was MBS’s (Mohammed Bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia) support and push for an American attack. While publicly, Saudi Arabia has been pushing for negotiations, behind the scenes MBS told Trump that he wants and fully supports an American attack on Iran. On Sunday, Saudi Arabia went further and stated that they would be joining the attacks on Iran.
Netanyahu’s motivations are clear. He wants to destroy Iran’s missile program and their ability to be a threat to Israel’s security. This is a worthy motivation. None of us should forget that Iran has also been the supporter and financier of the terror proxies: Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthis, Iraqi Militias, and others.
The timing of this war is very important to Netanyahu. He needed it to occur before the next election cycle in the US where it is likely that the Republicans will lose the majority in the House of Representatives and possibly in the Senate as well. This will bring about many changes in the way that Trump acts as there will be many restraints that he doesn’t have now. Even more important than the US election cycle, Netanyahu needs this war before the next elections in Israel. Every single poll since the beginning of the October War has shown Netanyahu’s coalition losing the majority and therefore, he would not be Prime Minister. Every day since October 7, the next elections has been Netanyahu’s second main motivation for everything he has done. His first motivation was staying in power. After seeing his numbers plummet due to the October 7 massacre, he saw his popularity rise greatly with the successes of the IDF’s actions against Hezbollah in Lebanon but not enough to bring his poll numbers up high enough for the next elections.
There is a lot of speculation about the timing of the next elections. By law, they must be held in October 2026 at the latest, if the current government remains for the entire time of the 4-year mandate. Most people as well as the politicians believe that elections will be held before that time. If the government falls through a vote of no confidence or a decision is made to disband the Knesset by the government/Prime Minister, elections must be held within 3 months, which is what most believe will happen. It is highly likely that Netanyahu will make the choice to disband the Knesset at the end of this war, depending on the results. If the war continues to cause major damage to the Iranian ballistic missile program and if it brings about the real possibility of regime change in Iran, Netanyahu will want to have elections as soon as possible.
In Israel’s history, the government has always gained support during each war. The October War was the first time that the government lost great support from day one until the end. This war with Iran will likely bring more support to Netanyahu and Likud and that is what Netanyahu is counting on.
As it has been with every success of the IDF, Netanyahu is the first to take credit. He never takes responsibility for any failures and always shines the blame on others. For years, the Mossad, Shin Bet, the IDF and the Intelligence community presented Netanyahu with options for assassinating Hamas leaders (Yihya and Mohammed Sinwar and Mohammed Deif and many others), as well as Iranian leaders, he always said no and told them that he wants quiet on those fronts. He believed that he could buy this quiet and was totally blindsided to their real plans. The attack on Iran and the success of the killing of almost 50 of Iran’s top leadership is not due to Netanyahu’s careful planning and execution, no matter how much he is blowing his own horn. It is more due to his stepping aside and letting the security forces do what they know how to do. All the credit for the success does to them, not to Netanyahu. Outside of his political goals and actions, Netanyahu doesn’t have a strategic bone in his body. He has never presented a strategic plan for anything in all of his years as Prime Minister and now is no different.
He is a political animal and that is the only thing that makes him tick. Every move and every decision he makes is based on what will keep him in power. This, above and beyond any concern for the country or the people is the basis for all that he does and no one should be blinded by his incessant need for power and to remain Prime Minister. He continues to be the most self-centered prime minister in Israel’s history and nothing will change that. The danger of Netanyahu that was shown on October 7 continues to be the same dangerous Netanyahu today.