In a truly shocking development that nobody could possibly have seen coming, Israel’s response to Donald Trump‘s “ceasefire” has been to collapse in laughter, wipe the tears from its eyes, and continue bombing Iran like nothing happened.
Trump approached ending the Israel/Iran war like he was trying to broker a real estate deal. Compliment the opposing sides, then announce they’ve agreed, and hope they’ll just go along with it to save face. But what probably works fine between New Jersey property tycoons doesn’t work with Middle Eastern countries with decades of bad blood between them and implacable political and cultural differences.
As such, Trump’s “ceasefire” lasted about as much time as it took an IDF soldier to press a “fire missile” button. Now Israeli pilots are in the air on a mission to blow up more of Tehran, probably still giggling to themselves that Trump seriously thought he could just tell Netanyahu what to do.
All this has utterly humiliated Trump, who is currently absolutely furious. How furious? Well, he’s yelling at Israel’s air force that they need to “BRING YOUR PILOTS HOME, NOW!”:
The response from Netanyahu will presumably be “… or what?”. He knows full well that impotently being angry on social media is the absolute limit of how far Trump is prepared to go in leashing Israel and stopping them from waging war on Iran.
Like watching a chihuahua intimidate a rottweiler.
Watching a tiny country like Israel so effortlessly bully the United States is like watching a chihuahua intimidate a rottweiler. At least theoretically, Trump holds all the cards here. At a snap of his fingers, he could cut off military aid to Israel and effectively impose his ceasefire. He could threaten to remove other forms of economic aid on which Israel relies, endangering their economy.
Of course, Trump will do absolutely no such thing, and Netanyahu knows it. As it turns out, if the country you’re negotiating with knows you have absolutely no leverage over them, they won’t listen to you when you plead with them to knock it off with the warmongering.
Anyone with eyes could have seen this coming a mile away. Expect Trump to simmer furiously over the coming days as his “12 day war” statement goes down in history alongside Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” speech. Trump has just discovered the limits of his power, and Netanyahu is laughing in his face. Perhaps literally!
