New York Times: Biden may make the toughest decision of his tenure on Iran
According to Thomas Friedman who wrote on New York Times, that from his experience covering events in the Middle East, the war Israel is waging against Iran, the Palestinian Hamas movement and the Lebanese Hezbollah, and the United States could soon be dragged into it.
Although one of the reasons for Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel on October 7, was the reckless expansion of settlements, the brutal treatment of Palestinian prisoners and encroachments on Islamic religious sites in Jerusalem, the other reason for the attack was that it was also part of a broader Iranian campaign aimed at driving the United States out of the Middle East and rallying its allies in the corner.
Friedman warned that if the current conflict between Israel and Iran and what he described as its proxies turns into a full-scale war that Israel may not be able to fight alone for a long period of time, then US President Joe Biden may have to make the most difficult fateful decision of his presidential term on whether to go to war with pro-Israel Iran, and then eliminate its nuclear program, which is the cornerstone of Tehran’s strategic network in the region.
Friedman argues in his New York Times article that Iran set up the network to replace the United States as the most powerful actor in the Middle East and to make Israel bleed to death as a result of the wounds inflicted on them by their proxies in the region.
The United States must always be cautious of what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to do.
Friedman cited a question in an article by former Israeli diplomat Alon Pinhas in Haaretz on Thursday, why did Netanyahu now choose to assassinate Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran amid sensitive prisoner swap negotiations?
“Was it to show that Israel is capable of doing so, or is it deliberately pushing things to escalate in the hope that fueling the conflict with Iran will drag the United States into war, further dividing the gap between Netanyahu and the October 7 disaster, for which the prime minister hasn’t been held accountable to this day?”
Friedman admitted that he would not trust Netanyahu even for a second to claim that he puts US interests above his political conclusion, and that he won’t even put the interests of Israel before him.
Friedman wrote that Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan have calmly and effectively built a vast network of alliances in recent years to contain China and Iran.
The other most important grouping, in Friedman’s perspective, is the Economic Corridor between India, the Middle East and Europe, which is designed to strengthen trade ties and facilitate the flow of energy supplies between the EU and India.
Friedman went on, that things have become crystal clear to him, but what isn’t clear at all.
“What Netanyahu will do, and what interests will he serve? Is it his personal interest, or the American or the interests of Iran?”
