00:00Now, for more insights, let's speak to Laura Blumenfeld, an Anderson Scholar and Senior Fellow at Johns Hopkins School of
00:06Advanced International Studies Europe.
00:08She's also a former U.S. State Department advisor for the Middle East.
00:11Laura, good to have you on the show.
00:13So, first of all, why has the strike on Iran's South Park gas field become such a flashpoint between the
00:19U.S. and Israel?
00:21I think what you're looking at is a difference between a regional agenda and a global agenda.
00:26As they say, where you stand on an issue depends on where you sit.
00:30So, Israel sits in the Middle East, and for them, the sort of key concern is security.
00:35And they feel like any strike, any degradation of Iran's capabilities, whether they're military or economic, is a plus for
00:42them.
00:43The United States is a global power.
00:45They sit far away, and the security threat isn't quite as imminent.
00:48And so, they're more focused on the economic fallout from this war.
00:53They're thinking about, you know, shipping in the Gulf, and also their Gulf allies, who are being pummeled in retaliatory
01:00strikes by Iran.
01:01The second thing I think that's most important, that we see a difference between Netanyahu and President Trump, is what
01:07they promised their voters.
01:08President Trump promised the American voters a golden era, and, you know, a slang we call oil, black, gold.
01:16And voters are going to the gas pumps and seeing the prices risen by 30 percent, and who knows where
01:22they'll go from here.
01:23Netanyahu, by contrast, is known as Mr. Security.
01:26He promised his voters security, and he's definitely up against it after the October 7th attack in 2023, where he
01:34needs to prove himself in terms of a security leader, and therefore he's willing to take more risks on the
01:40battlefield.
01:41But Laura, Trump says the attack was, in his words, unexpected Netanyahu, who said Israel acted on its own.
01:47Are we now seeing a clear divergence in their war aims?
01:52I think it's more of a divergence in messaging, not mission.
01:56Trump, you know, if he says it didn't happen, it didn't happen, because it's obviously not the way he wants
02:01to project power.
02:02In the Middle East, he wants to be seen as keeping the Gulf allies under the American security umbrella.
02:08And these strikes on, you know, across the Gulf, Iran is sort of destroying their energy infrastructure.
02:15So I think it's really important for Trump to message that he wasn't a part of that attack, or he
02:20had no knowledge.
02:21But in terms of their aims, I don't see much of a divergence.
02:24I mean, would Israel like to see the regime collapse?
02:27Sure, because they understand, as any Australian farmer does, that even a decapitated snake can bite and kill.
02:34And that's what we're seeing.
02:35Even with the decapitation of Iran, they're still a lethal force.
02:39And there are reports that the U.S. may already be exploring diplomatic off-ramps.
02:44So how might that clash with Israel's objectives?
02:49Well, I think Israel felt like they had to fight this war.
02:52The United States felt like they wanted to fight the war.
02:55As your reporter mentioned, the Department of War has already requested $200 billion more in funding to fight the war.
03:04So it's not clear that they're only pursuing diplomatic negotiation track.
03:09I think they're fighting on two fronts, militarily and diplomatically.
03:13As Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once said, you can't win at the negotiating table what hasn't been burned on
03:20the battlefield.
03:21So I think they're playing both sides of that.
03:23And they're hoping, ultimately, the United States is hoping to get back to the table and get a better deal.
03:28Well, thank you very much, Laura Blumenfeld, former U.S. State Department advisor for the Middle East.
Comments