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Iran, Israel, and Donald Trump
The current conflict between Iran and Israel is decades old: Donald Trump is something new.
The current conflict between Iran and Israel has been brewing for decades.
Over the past ten years, and in particular since former President Barack Obama provided Iran with so much American largesse, Iran’s leaders have funded so much proxy terror in the region, Israel’s other neighbors must even now be breathing a small, in private, sigh of relief.
If Israel defeats Iran during this phase of the conflict, their nations might see fewer terrorist plots, bombs, and assassinations. Better still, if Israel defeats Iran in 2025, Iran will not be fomenting unrest, trying to engineer regime changes, or using other strongman tactics to intimidate its neighbors.
In the Middle East, the battle between Israel and Iran is part of a larger running conflict between peaceable adherents to the Muslim faith and the forces of Islamism that have twisted it with violence, antisemitic rhetoric, and terrorism.
In many ways, the current fight is the latest outgrowth of a war that has already lasted hundreds of years, if not thousands.
One thing is different this time, however. There is at least one wild card in the deck: President Donald Trump.