The Jewish state, as usual, makes a handy fall guy. The president might look in the mirror instead.
By Max Boot - March 23, 2026 When a nation starts a war for dubious reasons and then suffers the consequences, there is inevitably a search for scapegoats. Conspiracy theories abound. It happened after World War I, when the favorite villains were “merchants of death” and international bankers. It happened again after the Iraq War, which some blamed on “neoconservatives” and Halliburton, the oil-services giant led by Dick Cheney before he became vice president.
It’s now happening with President Donald Trump’s foolhardy war against Iran. Operation Epic Fury may yet produce some positive results, but for now, it has gone spectacularly awry. Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz and targeted energy infrastructure across the region, causing oil prices to skyrocket and instability to spread. As so often happens, the Jews — or, if you prefer a polite euphemism, “Zionists” or “the Israel lobby” — make a handy fall guy.
What the right-wing fringe once whispered — that this was “a war for Israel” — suddenly burst onto the front pages last week thanks to Joe Kent’s resignation as director of the National Counterterrorism Center. In a blistering public letter, Kent wrote that “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation” and that “we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”
The first part of his statement is clearly true. As Tulsi Gabbard, one of Trump’s intelligence chiefs, informed Congress last week, the mullahs had made “no efforts … to rebuild their enrichment capability” and were likely years away from having long-range missiles capable of reaching the U.S. homeland. Yet that doesn’t mean Kent’s second claim is accurate, even if came from a former administration insider.
Recall that Kent is the same guy who claimed that the FBI could have been responsible for orchestrating the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol. He traffics in conspiracies. In his resignation letter, he kept them coming by blaming Israel for the Iran and Iraq wars. He added that the fight against the Islamic State, in which his wife was killed while serving in Syria in 2019, was also “manufactured by Israel.” In reality, Israeli officials warned the Bush administration against invading Iraq. And, needless to say, they didn’t concoct the Islamic State threat — which, unlike the current war, led to the mobilization of a massive international coalition.
It’s true the U.S. and Israel are both waging war against Tehran, a campaign that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long agitated for. But it wasn’t until Trump came to power that the U.S. finally agreed to attack Iran — first last June and then again on Feb. 28. That’s Trump’s responsibility. He could have said no.
While the president is surrounded by pro-Israel voices and supported by pro-Israel donors, he is also close to Gulf states that generally opposed the attack. Caught in the crossfire, many Gulf Arabs now feel that their investment in Trump — Qatar gave him a $400 million airplane, and Emirati investors sank $500 million into his cryptocurrency company — isn’t paying off.
Why did Trump listen to allies in Israel, not in the Gulf? Why does he do anything? It’s always a bit of a mystery. The best explanation I’ve seen comes from Nate Swanson, who was forced out last year as the Iran expert on the National Security Council.
In an essay for Foreign Affairs, published four days before the war began, Swanson wrote: “Trump seems interested, in no particular order, in demonstrating the prowess of the U.S. military, strengthening his negotiating position, showing he was serious when he vowed in a January Truth Social post to protect Iranian protesters, and differentiating his approach from President Barack Obama’s.” Swanson added that the president became overconfident about rejecting the advice of the foreign policy establishment because he had done so before — e.g., moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem — and gotten away with it. But in trying to manufacture a casus belli with Iran, Trump and his aides inadvertently helped foster conspiracy theories about Israel. Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed on March 2 that the U.S. had to attack Iran because Israel was going to strike anyway, and, when it did so, Iran would hit U.S. forces. The administration then tried to walk this back — and rightly so. It’s absurd to imagine that Netanyahu would have bombed Iran if Trump had told him not to and threatened to withhold military aid if he did.
Then last week, Trump claimed he had nothing to do with Israel’s attack on Iran’s South Pars gas field, which led to Iranian retaliation against a major Qatari natural gas refinery and sent energy prices surging. “The United States knew nothing about this particular attack,” Trump wrote on social media, even though Israeli officials told journalists they had informed their U.S. counterparts beforehand.
Trump never accepts responsibility for any failure; it’s always someone else’s fault. He’s already blaming European allies for the U.S. failure to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. “Woke generals” could be next. How long before he throws Israel under the bus too?
The more the Iran war is blamed on Israel, the more it will do to turn public opinion against the Jewish state. A recent Gallup poll already found that more Americans sympathize more with the Palestinians than the Israelis. According to a YouGov poll, younger Republicans are turning against the Jewish state — a trend that has doubtless been driven by Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank. Now imagine what will happen if American motorists blame Israel — however unfairly — for the high cost of gasoline. The blowback from Trump’s ill-advised war is just beginning.
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Sia: Is he right that it is not Israel's fault?
Well, of course. Like he observed, trump could have said no. In fact, like all of his predecessors, he SHOULD have said "NO!", but he didn't. That's on him and him alone! He is the mercurial mental midget who is to blame for every dimwitted action he orders the military to take.
Of course, Israel and its American lobby wanted him to agree and did what they could to influence him, clearly knowing all of his many weaknesses. What world leader doesn't know how to get to him? We all know that trump doesn't listen to anyone who says what he doesn't want to hear.
He doesn't think. He reacts. He postures.
Everyone knows that heavy praise is all that's necessary to "twist his arm" into seeing things their way. Especially if it's someone he admires as a strongman or a powerful leader whose admiration he wants.
He is delighted by showing how powerful he is when wielding American weaponry.
At least until it blows up in his face.
Then he backtracks and strikes out, blaming everyone but himself. Throughout it all, he lies. He somehow believes that reality is what he says it is.
Israel obviously manipulated and put pressure on him to see it their way. Every country is looking out for their own best interests and securityIran is a huge thorn in their side.
However, HE and HE ALONE is responsible for choosing to go along.
Netanyahu is behind this war, he has lured idiot boy Trump into it, he has led the attacks, he is using it as cover for wars in the region (especially Lebanon)…this guy is full of it.
One of the ‘Israel can do no wrong’ crowd. SAY ‘NO’ TO WAR! RESIST!
Of course NetanYahoo is behind it all. That was abundantly clear in the piece.
Posted by Sia on March 30, 2026, 7:38 am, in reply to "Absolute RUBBISH" ADMIN
Did you even read it? You are absolving trump of HIS personal responsibility for this country being in this war by calling this piece absolute rubbish.
Israel wanted it. Russia and China couldn't be happier about it.
But trump also wanted it. He's been itching to destroy Iran for years. NetanYahoo certainly influenced him, no one is saying he didn't. But Israel wouldn't have dared do it without trump. trump now OWNS this war.
Trump is not a thinker or planner; clearly Netanyahu (Israel’s leader) is largely to blame. Some think he’s to blame for Gaza too, deliberately using Hamas to attempt genocide. Now he seems to be doing the same in Lebanon.
Netanyahu can’t be both responsible and Trump’s puppet…? SAY ‘NO’ TO WAR! RESIST!
They are each responsible for their own choices and both responsible for the war.
trump slightly more because he should have said no.
Obviously, minimal planning beyond strike one was planned out in advance given that no one can control or anticipate trump.
However,now that the war is in full force, trump has lost all real control. He can't stop Israel from continuing now that they have knocked out so much of Iran's leadership and sophisticated weapons and he can't afford to end our participation without major hits to his exceedingly limited credibility.
So yeah, trump was played, but he chose to in spite of our top military generals most certainly advising against it... IF they were ever consulted rather than merely ordered to do it.
I get where you are coming from, absolutely, but I will not excuse trump's full cooperation in it whether he understood he was being played or not.
I get where you are coming from, absolutely, but I will not excuse trump's full cooperation in it whether he understood he was being played or not. SAY ‘NO’ TO WAR! RESIST!
on March 29, 2026, 6:20 pm
