A former Israeli diplomat reacted in real time to a social media post by President Donald Trump on the latest developments in the Iran war.
The 79-year-old president demanded "Israel and Iran must immediately stop 'shooting,'" and former Israeli consul general Alon Pinkas appeared minutes later on CNN to offer his analysis of the extremely short Truth Social post.
"This is something you wouldexpect from the president tosay, you know, thediplomatic lingo of showrestraint, exercisecaution, patience, and so on. It's clear that he, President Trump, had to make this statement, butbasically what the statement issaying, you know, the underlining, the underlininglogic of it is that 'this is notmy war anymore, I, President Trump, this is not my waranymore – this is between Israeland Iran, and I'm not part ofthis, I'm pursuing negotiationsto get a deal. Good deal, baddeal, mediocre deal, we coulddiscuss this.'"
"Yeah, he'sbasically saying to Mr.Netanyahu, you're onyour own, and he's basicallysaying to the Iranians, 'Well, 'you're not necessarily going tohave a deal if you keep onshooting,'" Pinkas added. "But the bottom line isthis: 'I'm not involved in this.'"
Trump has been pressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop attacks on Lebanon to give him space to pursue a deal with Iran to end the war, but he has ignored the president's warning and Israel and Iran have traded strikes over the weekend in the worst escalation since a truce in April.
"Netanyahu and Trump have a different politicalcalculus," Pinkas said. "Trump is saying, 'Iwant to end this war and I canrein in Israel, and I and Iwill tell them what to do, andthey will do what I tell them, and I call the shots,' etc., etc.Netanyahu, on the other hand,has defied Trump three times inthe last three weeks withbreaking violating the ceasefire in Lebanon, with attackingthe Dacia, which is the quarterthe neighborhood, the area in Beirut where mostly is centereddespite Trump's warnings andagain last night when Iranlaunched a barrage of missiles. Trump called on Netanyahu toshow restraint and exerciserestraint and and not retaliate, and three times Netanyahu defiedhim."
"Netanyahu is speaking to adomestic audience," he added. "He's got anelection in two or three months,either in September or October, three or four months. So Netanyahuwants to brag that I stood up tothe American president and cameto national security and came tothe defense of Israel. I stoodup, and only I could do this. What Mr. Trump is doing in stating more than oncethat he calls the shots and Netanyahu will have no choicebut to accept he's talking notnecessarily about the ceasefire, but about a a framework ora provisional or a memorandumtype of deal with Iran."