‘Drop Israel’: How military escalation with Iran divides Trump’s base
After taking the oath of office for his second term in January, US President Trump had said he would push to “stop all wars” and leave a legacy of a “peacemaker and unifier”.
But six months in, missiles are flying across the Middle East after Israel attacked Iran, risking an all-out regional war that could drag US troops into the conflict. The Israeli strikes on Iran, which Trump has all but explicitly endorsed, are now testing the president’s promise to be a harbinger of peace.
They are also dividing his base, with many right-wing politicians and commentators stressing that unconditional support for Israel is at odds with the “America First” platform on which Trump was elected.
“There is a very strong sense of betrayal and anger in many parts of the ‘America First’ base because they have truly turned against the idea of the US being involved in or supporting any such wars,” said Trita Parsi, executive vice president at the Quincy Institute, a US think tank that promotes diplomacy.
Israel uses cover of ‘self defence’ to bomb, invade, occupy and commit genocide in region
Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara said that Israel uses the excuse of “self-defense” to carry out crimes across the region, and it can do so because it is funded, armed and provided “diplomatic cover” by the US.
“Israel has military superiority thanks to the United States. You could also say that it is not Israel. It is the American-supported Israeli army. Because everything that Israel used in that bombing was American,” Bishara said in reference to its attacks on Iran.
“The fundamental problem today, like the fundamental problem throughout the Middle East, is that everyone seems to think – especially Israel – that ends justify the means. That you can do whatever you want to: violate all laws of humanity, of international law, so on and so forth, because you think that your end game, your cause, is more important than others,” Bishara said.
“Iran doesn’t have the right of self-defense. But Israel does. So Israel takes that right in order to bomb Iran. But if Iran bombs Israel. No, Iran does not have the right of self-defense,” he said.
“It carries out genocide in the name of self-defense. It carries out the invasion of different countries in the name of self-defense. It maintains an occupation for six decades in the name of self-defense. Now it’s going to bomb more and more of Iran in the name of self-defense,” he added.
Couldn't be more right, 'self-defense' has lost all its meaning just like anti-semitism.
