Israelere drept av panestinere utenfor Sderot i Israel den 7. oktober 2023. Foto: Ohad Zwigenberg / AP / NTB.

Det hjelper ikke hva Joe Biden sier nå, skriver den israelske journalisten Liel Leibovitz i Tablet: – Når du hjelper Iran med penger og etterretning, kaller Netanyahus regjering for ekstrem og destabiliserer Israel, har du banet veien for krigen, fastslår Leibovitz, som selv har et nært forhold til USA.

Vi vet ennå ikke hvordan denne krigen vil utspille seg, sier han, men det er lett å se hvem som har ansvaret. Det demokratiske partiet i USA, som i øyeblikket har presidenten, anser Israel som en belastning, skriver Leibovitz.

Samtidig gir USA penger til Iran og deler etterretning med Iran, og det øker mullaregimets evne til å ramme Israel. Hvem andre setter palestinerne i stand til å ramme en israelsk strtidsvogn med droner?

🚨 Footage of how the #Israel-i tank got destroyed on the #Gaza border pic.twitter.com/AZvQvN10YS

— Middle East Observer (@ME_Observer_) October 7, 2023

Watch this video. That’s a Hamas drone taking down an Israeli Merkava tank. A drone operated by an organization sponsored and trained by Iran applying both Iranian tactics and, most likely, Iranian hardware to attack Israel. This happened weeks after America sent Iran six billion dollars, and one week after we learned that the American government had over the past years ceded whole parts of its own intelligence units to Iranian spies.

Både Obama- og Biden-administrasjonen har etterstrebet «en mer stabil maktbalanse» i Midtøsten, konstaterer Leibovitz. Det har i praksis betydd mindre solidaritet med Israel og tøvær i forholdet til Teheran:

Biden himself, in an op-ed in The Washington Post, spoke of “an integrated Middle East,” using the phrase no less than three times to make clear that his administration was intent on pursuing his predecessor’s commitment to seeing Iran not as a U.S. foe but as our collaborator.

Dette er mer enn bare ord, fortsetter han:

And the Biden administration wasn’t just talking the talk. It was also walking the walk, from unfreezing billions in assets to make it easier for Tehran to support its proxy, Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon, to sending huge cash infusions used primarily to pay the salaries of tens of thousands of unvetted “security personnel.”

I mellomtiden har Biden nærmest portrettert Netanyahu som en fasicst og holdt ham ute i kulden:

Biden himself took to CNN to call Netanyahu’s government “the most extreme” he’s ever seen, and lost no opportunity to lecture his Israeli counterpart about democratic values. The former U.S. ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides, took the unprecedented step of intervening in the country’s domestic affairs, announcing ominously that he “think[s] most Israelis want the United States to be in their business.” And if words weren’t enough, the administration also sent American dollars to support the anti-Netanyahu NGOs organizing the protests that brought Israel to a halt for months. Netanyahu was famously denied an invite to the White House; his key opponent, opposition leader Benny Gantz, had no such problem.

Dette betyr at Israel må planlegge en fremtid der landet kan klare seg uten USA, konkluderer Leibovitz.

Reject, with great force and wrath, the death cult that has gripped so much of American political, public, and intellectual life and that sees virtue in prompting up benighted regimes in the name of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

– Vi trenger ikke noe «integrert Midtøsten». Vi har fiender som hater oss, og vi har våre egne interesser å ivareta, og det må vi aldri glemme, avslutter Leibovitz.

Kjøp boken av Alf. R. Jacobsen her!