“The agreement signed by Trump does not commit us to anything. We are not a US colony. We are an independent and sovereign state…we are not a banana republic”
“The agreement signed by Trump does not commit us to anything. We are not a US colony. We are an independent and sovereign state…we are not a banana republic.” So says Israel's national security minister, Itam Ben-Gvir, thus enunciating, along with many senior Israeli officials, an official response of his government to what Trump, the great strategic ally of his country's survival, is now boasting as the greatest military and political victory of the US.
Israeli Minister of National Security, Itam Ben-Gvir. PHOTO: X
More, more precisely, Ben-Gvir said that “we are not partners in this agreement that does not guarantee our security”, which, formally, means that Israel does not recognize nor will it ever want to recognize the Agreement between the US and Iran, which, in diplomatic and military logic, conveys that it will not respect not only the terms of the current agreement but also, what is even more serious, nor what will derive from it, after the negotiations announced in two months, for the preparation of an eventual peace treaty between the two countries, a text to which other great powers could also join.
Israel's position de facto cancels an essential chapter of the Agreement, the one regarding Lebanon, where Irael Katz, the Israeli foreign minister, supported and detailed the position of his government colleague, stating that the army will occupy security zones in Lebanon indefinitely: “Both Prime Minister Netanyahu and I have a clear policy that the Israeli military will remain in security zones in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza indefinitely for the protection of Israel's border and communities against jihadists.”
In recent history, there has never been such a public humiliation of the US, of its President, a direct derision of America's ability to impose a political line or an agreement that would be respected at least by its only ally so far unconditionally and standing by Washington as a support in all diplomatic storms for decades. And receiving in return, just as unconditionally, absolutely total American support, practically, on countless occasions, equivalent to operations for the survival of the State of Israel.
If things continue – and it is increasingly difficult to imagine the possibility that Netanyahu will find a way to free himself from the presence of the ultra-religious far-right thanks to which he is in power – it is only now that the core of the future conflict in the Middle East is being precisely outlined. And this could be truly terrible because Israel without the support of the US, remains alone in a battle that will be desperate because, internationally, it is now facing a wave (and this without precedent) of accusations of the most serious war crimes and genocide, all culminating in the recent Report drawn up by the Secretary General of the UN about which I spoke at length a very short time ago.
Consequently, suddenly, through this incredible episode, the agenda of the Evian meeting changes and a number of the visible and more discreet priorities of the great powers who now see their hopes at least put on hold that the pacification of the relationship between the US and Iran was equivalent, as Trump proclaimed far too soon, to solving the regional problem in the Near East.
And that's all. The discussions at the NATO Summit in Ankara will have to take into account the definite possibility of a high-intensity conflict in the area of direct interest of the Alliance and which, let's hope, will not reach this point, involving Turkey, which already warned a few days ago that Israel's policy directly threatens its security interests.
Finally, let's see how, depending on the evolution of the situation, the European institutions will also react, caught under strong pressure from some Western countries regarding Israeli policies in Gaza, all invoked in the context of the discussion about the requests to suspend the Agreement with Israel…in full revision process which, as Kaja Kallas, the head of European diplomacy, said, is focused on the respect of human rights and the stage of negotiations regarding the expansion of humanitarian aid in the region.
Far from being extinguished, the conflict now seems to be burning with great intensity, regardless of the calls and hopes of the international community which, here, really has nothing to say that could be taken into account.
