{"id":181018,"date":"2025-06-13T12:05:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T12:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/181018\/"},"modified":"2025-06-13T12:05:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T12:05:08","slug":"as-israel-strikes-iran-what-happened-to-america-first-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/181018\/","title":{"rendered":"As Israel strikes Iran, what happened to \u2018America First\u2019? | Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Early this morning, Israel conducted unprecedented strikes<\/a> on Iran, killing civilians along with senior military officials and scientists and basically forcing the Iranian government into a position in which it must retaliate \u2013 as if there already was not enough going on in the Middle East, particularly with Israel\u2019s ongoing genocide of Palestinians<\/a> in the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n

Israel, of course, thrives on perpetual upheaval and mass killing, all the while portraying itself as the victim of the folks it is slaughtering and otherwise antagonising. True to form, the Israelis have now cast Iran as the aggressor, with the country\u2019s nonexistent nuclear weapons allegedly posing a \u201cthreat to Israel\u2019s very survival\u201d, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared in his statement<\/a> announcing the launch of \u201cOperation Rising Lion\u201d.<\/p>\n

Unlike Iran, Israel does happen to possess nuclear weapons \u2013 which just renders the whole situation all the more flammable. But for Netanyahu, at least, keeping the region in flames is a means of saving his own skin from domestic opposition and embroilment in various corruption charges<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The United States, for its part, has denied collaboration in the Israeli attacks, although just yesterday US President Donald Trump acknowledged<\/a> that an Israeli strike on Iran \u201ccould very well happen\u201d. The US head of state, who in March trumpeted<\/a> the fact that he was \u201csending Israel everything it needs to finish the job\u201d in Gaza, has more recently gotten under Netanyahu\u2019s skin<\/a> by urging a diplomatic solution with Iran, among other insufficiently belligerent moves.<\/p>\n

By launching a so-called \u201cpreemptive strike<\/a>\u201d on Iran, then, Israel has effectively preempted the prospect of any sort of peaceful solution to the issue of whether or not the Iranians should be permitted to pursue a civilian nuclear enrichment programme.<\/p>\n

Already on Wednesday, Trump confirmed<\/a> that US diplomatic and military personnel were being \u201cmoved out\u201d of certain parts of the Middle East \u201cbecause it could be a dangerous place, and we\u2019ll see what happens\u201d.<\/p>\n

Now that the place appears to have become definitively more dangerous, the White House has scheduled a National Security Council meeting in Washington \u2013 with Trump in attendance \u2013 for 11 am local time (15:00 GMT). In other words, perhaps, there is no rush to deal with a potentially impending apocalypse without leaving US officials ample time for a leisurely breakfast first.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s Secretary of State Marco Rubio has, however, already weighed in on developments, stating<\/a>: \u201cWe are\u00a0not involved\u00a0in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rubio additionally warned<\/a>: \u201cLet me be clear: Iran should not target US interests or personnel.\u201d<\/p>\n

To be sure, the United States is no stranger to targeting Iranian interests and personnel. Recall the case of the January 2020 US assassination by drone strike<\/a> of Qassem Soleimani, head of the Quds Force of Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which simply further enshrined imperial double standards.<\/p>\n

The assassination, which took place in Baghdad during Trump\u2019s first stint as president, constituted a violation<\/a> of international law \u2013 hardly an aberration in US foreign policy. The killing was so exciting even to members of the liberal US media that, for example, The New York Times swiftly published the opinion<\/a> by its resident foreign affairs columnist that \u201cone day they may\u00a0name\u00a0a\u00a0street\u00a0after President\u00a0Trump\u00a0in\u00a0Tehran\u201d.<\/p>\n

That day has yet to come \u2013 though Trump would have undoubtedly been regarded with less ill will in Tehran had he stuck to the \u201cAmerica First\u201d policy that is the cornerstone of his second administration. As the name suggests, this policy ostensibly promotes a focus on US citizens and their needs rather than on, you know, bombing people in other countries.<\/p>\n

And yet the at least tacit endorsement extended by Trump for today\u2019s attacks on Iran would seem to call into question American priorities \u2013 and raise the possibility that the US is instead putting \u201cIsrael First\u201d.<\/p>\n

Indeed, this would not be the first time the US government is accused of placing Israel\u2019s policy objectives ahead of its own. The billions upon billions of dollars<\/a> in lethal aid that Republican and Democratic administrations alike have showered upon Israel can scarcely be said to benefit the average US citizen, who would certainly be better off if said billions were invested in, say, affordable housing or healthcare options<\/a> in the US itself.<\/p>\n

Understandably, such financial arrangements lend themselves to rumours that Israel is in fact calling the shots in Washington. But at the end of the day, key sectors of US capitalism make a killing off of Israel\u2019s regional savagery; you\u2019re not going to hear the US arms industry, for instance, complaining that today\u2019s assault on Iran doesn\u2019t put America first.<\/p>\n

The Reuters news agency reports<\/a> that the spokesperson for Iran\u2019s armed forces has \u201csaid Israel and its chief ally the United States would pay a \u2018heavy price\u2019 for the attack, accusing Washington of providing support for the operation\u201d.<\/p>\n

And whatever that price is, Israel\u2019s chief ally will no doubt ultimately find that it was all worth it.<\/p>\n

The views expressed in this article are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera\u2019s editorial stance.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Early this morning, Israel conducted unprecedented strikes on Iran, killing civilians along with senior military officials and scientists…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[6505,32,774,837,839,8041,7670,49,978,286,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-181018","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-benjamin-netanyahu","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-iran","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-middle-east","13":"tag-nuclear-weapons","14":"tag-opinions","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-us-canada","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114675969425207063","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}