00:00In a striking shift that's reshaping Middle East politics,
00:04we're witnessing what appears to be an unprecedented cooling in relations between
00:08US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
00:12Just months into his second administration, Trump has notably excluded Israel from his
00:18latest international tour of the Gulf states, a decision that breaks decades of diplomatic
00:23tradition. Even more surprising, the president who once scrapped the Iran nuclear deal is now
00:29pursuing direct negotiations with Tehran, reportedly blindsiding his Israeli counterparts.
00:35For an analysis on this diplomatic pivot, we turn to Associate Professor Sai Han from Wayne State
00:40University. It definitely is a bit premature to then posit whether this is going to be a long-term
00:50strategy for the United States as a whole and even for that matter for President Trump himself.
00:57But at this very moment, we do see a substantial shift. One of these seems to be perhaps based on a
01:06very personal level between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump. While there are the usual
01:12platitudes and while there are the usual posturings between the American president and the Israeli
01:18Prime Minister, which is more of a matter, it seems, of custom and tradition than anything else,
01:23now we see a bit of a cooling off. And perhaps a lot of this may be motivated and directed more because of
01:31President Trump's ego, feeling as though Netanyahu has been playing him, taking advantage of him, something that
01:39someone of Trump's personality will not abide. Whatever the reasons might be, it seems as though there is a bit more
01:47frost on the relationship. We find that reporting in the United States indicated that the former National
01:56Security Advisor Michael Waltz was removed from that position, ostensibly because he was too closely aligned
02:05with Netanyahu, particularly in calling for military strikes on Iran. Now, it seems as though Trump does not want that. He, in fact, has said,
02:15even on this current trip, in several different overtures, that he is seeking some kind of a negotiated settlement with Iran,
02:23using diplomacy as the proverbial carrot, and moving away from the stick, so to speak, that had been employed for so long. Now, of course,
02:32the irony is not lost that it is Trump himself, who took the United States out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action,
02:40also known as the Iran Nuclear Deal, when he came to office in his first term, perhaps more out of a sense of
02:48personal animus to its architect, former President Obama, than anything else. But now we find that Trump is, in fact,
02:55using a similar playbook of appealing to the regime in Iran to reach a negotiated settlement, trying to offer them
03:04sanctions in lieu of the pledge not to develop a military nuclear program. And it seems as though that
03:14kind of direct negotiation, as well as the direct negotiation that Trump has been engaged with regarding
03:22Hamas, blindsided Israel, and particularly Netanyahu, who expects, as have most Israeli prime ministers, to be
03:33advised and to be apprised of what Washington is planning on doing. And in fact, in many cases, having
03:41the right reserved for objection, or even refusal of such policies. It also indicates that the Trump
03:47administration seems to be more airtight, that there are not the leaks that would tip off Israel about
03:57these policies. Waltz was seen as being the problematic individual. And therefore, it seems as though he was
04:03removed for that reason. But it is unprecedented that a US president making a trip to the region is
04:11completely keeping Israel off the list of destinations, whether stopping there first, or stopping there in
04:18this case at all, is quite surprising, and seems to indicate, as I said before, definitely a chilling effect
04:27between the United States and Israel.
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