Donald Trump isn't known for knowing things. But his assertion that a peace deal between Iran and Israel is easily achievable is ignorant even for him.
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Amid increasingly lethal attacks and bellicose rhetoric from both sides hinting at more death and destruction in the coming days, and considering the long history of animosity between their countries, the people of Iran and Israel would be justified to feel concerned about the situation their leaders maneuvered them into. However, dealmaker extraordinaire Donald Trump is on the case… and he appears to think that getting the two sides to agree is going to be a breeze.
Sure, “Death to Israel” has long been a guiding principle of the regime in Tehran, and Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz just stated that Iran’s capital city “will burn,” if attacks against his country continue, but the US president seems to believe that those are minor disagreements that can be ironed out quickly.
“[We] can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict,” Trump said in a social media post that defies reality in a way that is baffling even for him.
First of all, nothing comes easy in the Middle East, a part of the world long shaped by tribal and religious animosities that have resulted in near-continuous conflicts.
That is especially true when Israel is added to the mix, a country that many of its enemies would love to see disappear from the map.
And, of course, Tel Aviv’s relentless campaign against the Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip has done nothing to ease tensions.
In other words, the Middle East has been a powder keg run by religious zealots that hate each other for a long time.
None of this seems to concern Trump, who does not have a history of… knowing things.
Earlier this year, he already suggested displacing the Palestinians from Gaza, establishing an occupying force, and then turning the land into resorts.
Now, he thinks that Israel and Iran can just kiss and make up, which is a notion so ludicrous that it defies belief… especially because neither government seems to have much of an interest in achieving peace.
Ultimately, what matters most to Trump is how this conflict makes him look. After all, he ran on the promise of making the world safer and keeping the US out of foreign wars.
Neither is happening.
Not only has he not stopped the war between Russia and Ukraine on “day one,” as he promised, but now the Middle East is on the verge of a conflict that is spiraling out of control.
And the US is already involved, as Trump himself made it clear after the initial attack on Iran, when he touted the use of superior American-made weapons and hinted that Tel Aviv is keeping him in the loop on its war plans.
In addition, the US helped Israel defend itself against Iran’s retaliatory strikes.
Still, in spite of all that, Trump said that the last thing Tehran wants to do now is to attack Americans (which would make him look bad).
“The US had nothing to do with the attack on Iran, tonight,” he stated. “If we are attacked in any way, shape or form by Iran, the full strength and might of the US Armed Forces will come down on you at levels never seen before.”
Levels never seen before?
Perhaps the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would like a word.
Then again, maybe Trump doesn’t know about what happened there since he, apparently, is rather clueless when it comes to history.
In his Navigating the Insanity columns, Klaus Marre provides the kind of hard-hitting, thought-provoking, and often humorous analysis you won’t find anywhere else.
