A brief update from Agence France Presse underscores the shift in power in the Middle East. The report, citing a German source, tells us that Joe Biden ‘plans to meet the leaders of Germany, France and Britain in Berlin on Saturday to discuss the Middle East and Ukraine conflicts’.
On Saturday. It doesn’t exactly scream urgency, does it? It’s not that the desire to save Hamas, Hezbollah and ultimately Iran has waned among the US State Department, the European Commission and the UK Foreign Office, but that the unholy trinity of Middle East appeasers realise their hand is significantly weakened. Israel’s killing of Hassan Nasrallah and other senior Hezbollah commanders and its limited incursion into southern Lebanon not only put Iran on notice; it sent a blunt message to Washington DC, Brussels and London: your days of patrolling the parameters of Israeli self-defence are over. Concepts like military strength, the national interest, deterrence, and retribution might be regarded with urbane, cosmopolitan horror in the capitals of the West but in Jerusalem if you come for Israel, Israel is going to come for you.
It won’t be easy, but the State Department might have to reconcile itself to a more pro-American Middle East
The confab at Ramstein will likely not be about the reassertion of Israeli military independence per se but about how to limit the geopolitical fallout.
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