David K. Rees

Trump just stabbed Israel in the back again.

Photo credit: U.S. president Donald Trump announces U.S strikes on Iran.. Times of Israel February 28, 2026.(Screen capture) truth social.

On Monday, I looked at the headline to a story in The Times of Israel. One of the headlines said:

“Trump announces “very good and productive talks with Iran regarding “total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East”‘ . . ..

I have to give the Iranians credit.  They seem have found Trump’s Achilles heels (plural). The first is his mouth. The second is his never-ending quest for millions of dollars. The third is his quest to help Republicans in this fall’s American Congressional elections.
Back to the headline. There are two things of interest in this headline.  First, it promises a “TOTAL RESOLUTION (CAPS MINE) of our hostilities in the Middle East.” Interesting that Trump uses the words “our hostilities.”  Who does the man by “our”?  By promising a TOTAL (CAPS MINE) resolution of hostilities, it sounds as though he is including Israel in the word “our”.  This is hard to believe. From the beginning,  Israel’s objective in fighting this war has been to eliminate Iran’s nuclear capabilities. It is those capabilities which threaten Israel’s very existence. Israel’s objective in this war has never changed.
Trump’s objective has. At first he stated loudly that the war would be fought to effect regime change in Iran. The next day, he changed his objective. This time it was to end Iran’s nuclear capabilities; the same objective as Israel. Then Iran responded, going after Trump’s Achilles heels. Initially, Iran attacked American military bases on the Arabian peninsula, including one in Saudi Arabia. Then it started blocking shipping through the Straits of Hormuz. That meant that Trump’s allies, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE,  could NOT use the Straits of Hormuz to sell the oil which is  the source of their payments to Trump in the future. Finally, it  fired two missiles at the Island of Diego Garcia, 4,000 kilometers away from Iran. That is where the United States keeps B-2 bombers, the only bombers large enough  to have the capability of destroying Iran’s nuclear sights.
Despite the failure of the attack on Diego Garcia, Iran had established two things. First it, established that it had missiles which could reach targets 4,00O kilometers away. That is much further than anyone thought it. could.  Moreover, it established that Iran’s missiles  could not only reach American B-2s, they threaten  much of Europe as well.
Second, Iran established that Trump could be brought to knees merely by threatening his source of income. I  have said before that Iran will not stop negotiating until it gets everything it wants.  In this case, Iran has put itself in a position to get everything it wants out of Trump. Not only will Trump have to pull his Armada out of the region,  but he must refuse to use American B–2 bombers in support of  Israel in attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities. If Trump agrees to that, it will be very difficult for Israel to achieve its objective in this war: the elimination of Iran’s nuclear capability— a result which for all intensive purposes means that Iran will have won the war.
Bibi Netanyahu probably thought that until now, he had done a reasonably good job of keeping Trump under control in Iran. He had very skillfully kept American activity to southern Iran –-nowhere near Tehran or Iran’s nuclear sites:  Netanyahu left that to the Israeli Air Force, which he knew would do the job properly.
Little did Netanyahu understand the depth of  Trump’s depravity. Trump must think that if he ends this war, he can claim that he is a peacemaker who deserves to be awarded the Nobel  Peace Prize, something that would sooth his ego considerably. My perspective is  different. I view it as Trump stabbing Israel in the back yet again: this time he  has shown why people call him TACO (Trump always chickens out.) The question in my mind is whether we in  Israel will have to pay the price
About the Author
Before making Aliyah from the United States, I spent over three decades as a lawyer in the United States. My practice involved handling many civil rights cases, including women's- rights cases, in State and Federal courts. I handled numerous constitutional cases for the ACLU and argued one civil rights case in the United States Supreme Court. I chaired the Colorado Supreme Court's Committee on the Rules of Criminal Procedure and served on the Colorado Supreme Court's Civil Rules and Rules of Evidence Committees. Since much of my practice involved the public interest, I became interested in environmental law and worked closely with environmental organizations, including the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). I was on the Rocky Mountain Board of EDF. I received an award from the Nebraska Sierra Club as a result of winning a huge environmental case that was referred to me by EDF. I also developed significant knowledge of hazardous and radioactive waste disposal. I was involved in a number of law suits concerning waste disposal, including a highly-political one in the United States Supreme Court which involved the disposal of nuclear waste. As I child I was told by my mother, a German, Jewish refugee who fled Nazi Germany, that Israel was a place for her and her child. When I first visited Israel many years later, I understood what she meant. My feeling of belonging in Israel caused me to make Aliyah and Israel my home. Though I am retired now, I have continued my interest in activism and the world in which I find myself.
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