{"id":1024,"date":"2026-04-11T04:55:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T04:55:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reallifedaily.com\/?p=1024"},"modified":"2026-04-11T04:55:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T04:55:28","slug":"trump-netanyahu-and-how-war-in-iran-is-reshaping-us-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reallifedaily.com\/?p=1024","title":{"rendered":"Trump, Netanyahu and how war in Iran is reshaping US politics"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"FigureContent_content__GnImC\">\n<div class=\"ContentImage_ratio__0yYeG\">\n<div class=\"AspectRatio_container__FC_XH\" data-component=\"AspectRatioContainer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\" src=\"https:\/\/live-production.wcms.abc-cdn.net.au\/c31033274952575d6487bf6f04c7d69f?impolicy=wcms_crop_resize&amp;cropH=1387&amp;cropW=2465&amp;xPos=0&amp;yPos=129&amp;width=862&amp;height=485\" sizes=\"100vw\" alt=\"Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands.\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Extraordinary details have emerged about what went on inside the Situation Room as Benjamin Netanyahu pitched the war in Iran to Donald Trump.\u00a0<cite>(Reuters: Ronen Zvulun)<\/cite><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">It is the morning of February 11 and a US president \u2014 whose rambling speeches and erratic, violent and profane social media posts have led to increasing questions about his diminishing mental faculties \u2014 has ceded the floor of the White House Situation Room to the leader of another country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Israel&#8217;s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was making a &#8220;hard sell&#8221; to US President Donald Trump and his team, suggesting that Iran was ripe for regime change and expressing the belief that a joint US-Israeli mission could finally bring an end to the Islamic Republic of Iran.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ContentAlignment_marginBottom__4H_6E ContentAlignment_overflowAuto__c1_IL ContentAlignment_outdentDesktop__ijbiK LegacyWysiwyg_wysiwyg___2JFa\" title=\"US-Israel attack Iran: live updates\" data-component=\"LegacyWysiwyg\" data-print=\"inline-media\" data-uri=\"coremedia:\/\/teaser\/106400800\">\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Iran war live updates: For the latest news on the Middle East crisis, read our blog<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">We know this because of some\u00a0extraordinary reporting in The New York Times\u00a0this week by journalists Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Apart from the sheer amount of gripping detail the two journalists document, their report \u2014 part of an upcoming book \u2014 is hugely significant for two reasons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The first is that its account seems to confirm the view that Trump was led into the war by Israel: an idea now causing increasing anger in the United States in a population which started out against the war and has increasingly turned against Israel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">New research this week by the Pew Research Centre showed\u00a060 per cent of US adults now have an unfavourable view of Israel, up from 53 per cent last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">What is more, 59 per cent have little or no confidence in Netanyahu to do the right thing regarding world affairs \u2014 up from 52 per cent last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Particularly significant is the fact that the majority of Republicans under 50 now have an unfavourable opinion of Israel at 57 per cent, up from 50 per cent last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">This is not just about winning a popularity contest. Presuming the US mid-term races are conducted in a fair and free way, and the Democrats&#8217; results reflect the current polling on Trump, that could mean big trouble in the future for Israel and the staggering amounts of financial and military support it receives from the United States.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">This shift in US views of Israel represent a profound realignment in American politics.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP Heading_heading__VGa5B heading_heading__kjfxC Heading_default__Z3p_p Typography_sizeMobile20__NUDn4 Typography_sizeDesktop32__LR_G6 Typography_lineHeightMobile24__crkfh Typography_lineHeightDesktop40__BuoRf Typography_marginBottomMobileSmall__6wx7m Typography_marginBottomDesktopSmall__CboX4 Typography_bold__FqafP Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx Typography_normalise__u5o1s\" data-component=\"Heading\">The known unknowns<\/h2>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The second reason why the report is so significant is that it stands in such contrast to the shortfalls in real, reliable information that the public gets about this conflict, not to mention the apparent shortfall in information going to the participants.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">For example, six weeks of the Israeli-US assault on Iran have now passed in which the world has had little reliable information about who is actually running Iran, or what the impact of the war has been on its population, infrastructure or war fighting capacity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Similarly, we know little reliably about what toll the conflict has had on Israel and the US or, for that matter the Gulf states which have found themselves the target of Iranian assaults.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Information has emerged in trickles, belatedly, about the actual toll from an Iranian strike on the US embassy in Riyadh being much greater than initially suggested, for example. We know little about the damage sustained by aircraft carrier the USS Gerald R Ford which took it out of action for some weeks \u2014 either because of an Iranian strike, or a fire in the laundry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The Gulf states have mostly downplayed and muted the impact of attacks on their infrastructure. News, for example, was belatedly reported that Saudi oil production capacity is now down by 600,000 barrels a day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The level of stockpiles of air defence systems is believed to be badly depleted in the Gulf and Israel and, for that matter, globally. But we don&#8217;t know.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Confusion reigns over just how many ships may or may not have got through the Strait of Hormuz, other than the general observation that is not many.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Both Iran and the United States claimed overwhelming victories this week as a dubious ceasefire was announced.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Outsiders are left to assess events by what we can physically observe: the Strait of Hormuz is not opened; Iran maintains its capacity to strategically fire missiles and drones at Israel and the Gulf.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Both these facts blunt the denials of the claims by the US and Israel that they have won the war.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP Heading_heading__VGa5B heading_heading__kjfxC Heading_default__Z3p_p Typography_sizeMobile20__NUDn4 Typography_sizeDesktop32__LR_G6 Typography_lineHeightMobile24__crkfh Typography_lineHeightDesktop40__BuoRf Typography_marginBottomMobileSmall__6wx7m Typography_marginBottomDesktopSmall__CboX4 Typography_bold__FqafP Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx Typography_normalise__u5o1s\" data-component=\"Heading\">&#8216;Sounds good to me&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The demand for attention implicit in Donald Trump&#8217;s ever-changing stream of pronouncements \u2014 and the eternal question of what he will say next \u2014 tend to overshadow some of the perplexing aspects of the entire US-Israeli enterprise in Iran.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Most notable in that is the yawning disparity between the apparent quality of Israel&#8217;s intelligence and its equally apparent profound misjudgement of outcomes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The world has been stunned in the last couple of years by the lethally-granular quality of the intelligence that Israel has had on its enemies in Iran and in Lebanon that has allowed it to undertake repeated devastating hits on the leadership of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">But even that level of intelligence does not appear to have stopped it from making spectacularly bad overall assessments of its chances of defeating those enemies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman report that, in that Situation Room meeting, Netanyahu and his team &#8220;outlined conditions they portrayed as pointing to near-certain victory: Iran&#8217;s ballistic missile program could be destroyed in a few weeks&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;The regime would be so weakened that it could not choke off the Strait of Hormuz, and the likelihood that Iran would land blows against US interests in neighbouring countries was assessed as minimal.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Further, &#8220;Mossad&#8217;s intelligence indicated that street protests inside Iran would begin again and \u2014 with the impetus of the Israeli spy agency helping to foment riots and rebellion \u2014 an intense bombing campaign could foster the conditions for the Iranian opposition to overthrow the regime&#8221;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Extraordinary details have emerged about what went on inside the Situation Room as Benjamin Netanyahu pitched the war in Iran to Donald Trump.\u00a0(Reuters: Ronen Zvulun) It is the morning of &hellip; 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