AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): While official narratives present America's Middle East policies as a product of national interests, a deeper look at the bond between "Donald Trump" and "Benjamin Netanyahu" reveals a different picture. This relationship, which is defined beyond the boundaries of traditional diplomacy and in the space of informal deals, is tied to the heavy shadow of moral and financial scandals, such as the Epstein case.
This bond stems from a structure of systemic corruption in which crimes against humanity in Palestine and the weakening of strategic security in the United States following the start of the war against Iran and the destabilization of the region are a price for maintaining the power position of a particular class. In the meantime, American foreign policy has transformed from a strategic tool into a tool for covering up financial crimes and consolidating the power of corrupt elites in Washington and Tel Aviv.
The War Against Iran; A Strategic Mistake from the View of a Former Pentagon Official
"Karen Kvitkovsky," a retired US Air Force military officer and former analyst at the US Department of War (Pentagon), in an interview with ABNA News Agency regarding Trump's initial promise to begin a short war of a few weeks that, after six months, has now turned into a war of attrition that not only failed to destroy Iran's nuclear program but also severely weakened the military power of the United States, said, "I agree with those who consider this action the greatest strategic mistake in the history of US foreign policy. This unnecessary war, which was started at Israel's request, was strategically ambiguous and unpopular with public opinion and was designed as if its goal was not to preserve America's military capability and power as it was six months ago, but to please a crazy and ignorant president. Perhaps inexperience in fighting enemies that were not capable of reciprocating had caused American military commanders and advisers to fall into a kind of negligence and wishful thinking, or perhaps they simply believed the propaganda they themselves were publishing."
She added, "Another interpretation is that at that point, no one had a firm hand on the helm of the most powerful army in the world. There is also another view that justifies and argues this gross American mistake toward Iran in such a way that the beneficiaries of this affair have been the American and Israeli military-industrial complexes; because chaos and low-intensity, exhausting, and destabilizing wars are the desired outcome of the political factions of Israel and America. The goal of creating this chaos is to turn America into a global energy exporter and also to contain or control China and Russia in a desperate attempt to maintain hegemony."
Kvitkovsky, in response to the question of, given the repeated acknowledgments by American officials of the absence of a clear vision for ending the war, what justification does Washington have for continuing this endless quagmire, said, "There is no security or economic justification for this situation, except for cases that did not exist before the American and Israeli attack, namely guaranteeing free American access to the Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab. In addition, Iran's nuclear capability did not previously have a weapons nature, but it is possible that the current leader, after the assassination of Iran's supreme leader and several members of his family (meaning the very person who had prevented the formation of Iran's nuclear weapons program), may have less desire to remain outside the club of nuclear weapons holders."
She added, "I deeply believe that the arrogance and pride of Israeli and American politicians have blinded them to the nature and power of the Iranian nation and caused them to ignore Iran's real military, technological, and industrial advances; just as they have been afflicted with such blindness and negligence toward Russia's and China's advances in various fields. From an emotional perspective and given domestic political considerations, Trump especially cannot accept anything that is not within the framework of victory. He considers the flexibility of Iran's leadership and people—and the existence of a signed memorandum to end the war—a military defeat."
This retired American colonel continued, "However, depriving the world of 20 percent of its oil supply benefits the US government as an energy exporter. This raises prices, allows it to have energy dominance over Europe, strengthens petrodollars, contains China's growth, and at the same time, imposes tariffs on Russia and restrictions on Iran's energy exports. It is a clumsy, flawed, and costly approach, but Washington appears to still insist on it."
Military and Political Interests Behind the Continuation of Regional Crises
Regarding the emphasis of political observers on Trump's approach and the White House's passivity toward Netanyahu's personal goals and whether America's Middle East policy is being held hostage by the domestic policies of extremist factions in Israel and practically prevents America's exit from the regional quagmire, she said, "Answering this question is difficult, because the main—and often unspoken—reason for the war against Iran, like many other regional wars over the past two decades, has been to preserve Israel's freedom of action and military expansionism in the region, its advance in the occupied Palestinian territories and their erasure, and especially to strengthen the Likud Party and Netanyahu personally. However, the political standing of Trump and Netanyahu may be severely weakened in another six weeks. In addition, Israeli and American voters understand well that their economic and security situation has not improved but worsened under their elected leaders, and Zionist Israel, in both cases, is increasingly seen as a political burden."
Kvitkovsky added, "In response to this public doubt and dissatisfaction with the wars of America and Israel in West Asia, both governments in Washington and Tel Aviv—despite media hype about issues such as the recent commitment to sell American F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia—have in practice become closer to each other politically and militarily. We see this trend in the American and Israeli military colonization of Somalia and Uganda, in Tel Aviv's effort to integrate with NATO member countries (such as Greece and Albania), and also in Israel's new interest in South and Central America. This issue is also evident in the laws related to the integration of the Israeli army (IDF) and the Pentagon in key areas including intelligence and military logistics. We also see this approach in America's method of warfare, which mimics Israel's terrorist methods and AI-based targeting, as well as in the literature we use to describe periodic attacks on Iran, such as the term 'mowing the grass.'"
She continued, "I believe that some in Washington consider the US-Israel alliance—with its technological, financial, and artificial intelligence dominance—useful and necessary for maintaining a dominant power position in the face of China, according to the latest 2025 National Security Strategy. This means that Israel can be trusted to always assist the United States, and since the nature of this relationship is based on a deal, it follows that America, even after the end of the Trump administration, will continue disproportionate and extensive support for it despite American public opinion about this relationship and despite Israel's gradual genocide and efforts to erase Palestinians and other groups in the region."
This retired American colonel also, regarding the decline of the traditional hegemonic influence of the West in the Middle East and the formation of an indigenous security order based on direct agreements among regional powers, said, "Although the ultimate goal of the US-Israel alliance remains the preservation of absolute superiority, the agendas and strategies of this alliance may be changing. We have witnessed the withdrawal of American bases and forces from the Persian Gulf region and the lack of freedom of action for American military or commercial ships there or in the Red Sea; we also see the real understanding of America's allied countries in West Asia, which have realized that the United States is not only a pawn in Israel's hands but may at any moment endanger or sacrifice its own Arab leaders whom it has nurtured. Trump's continued reliance on two billionaire and Zionist allies who hold no official position in the US State Department as senior American negotiators in West Asia and globally is also evidence of the nature of the American approach. As a result, we are witnessing the emergence of new regional security blocs and new dialogues between regional countries aimed at achieving independence from the military and financial pillars on which US power relies to exert its influence."
The Consequences of the War and the Change in Washington's Calculations
She continued, "If regional security alliances and agreements, preferably several overlapping pacts, are properly formed and not nipped in the bud in the early stages, I think the realization of a peaceful Middle East will be possible. However, as long as an expansionist and nuclear-armed Israel remains a regional military power, such a thing will not be realized. Countries, and certainly empires, collapse from within, and there are numerous signs that this collapse has largely advanced in the United States and also in Israel as a small but powerful appendage or, better put, the de facto ruler of the American empire. We know that if global will were exercised in the West Asia region, Israel would become a normal state, and Palestine would become a neighbor with effective relations with it. Israel's transformation into a normal state would mean the end of Zionism in the region, and honestly, this is only possible through violence or the mass emigration of Israeli Zionists to other parts of the world."
Kvitkovsky concluded, regarding whether the motivation of White House officials for continuing and escalating tensions has been not America's national interests but fear of revealing information related to moral and political cases (such as the Epstein network) and efforts to preserve their own political survival, said, "There is no doubt that blackmail and corruption in the corridors of power in the United States and many other governments have deep and destructive roots, and Israel also has a long history of creating and exploiting these tools to direct American policies in line with its own interests. Most likely, the main factor in the reluctance to reveal Epstein's and Mossad's activities is not the issue of pedophilia or shameful sexual scandals, but the financial crimes of the ruling classes in Washington and elsewhere. The warmongering that has taken place since 1947 can largely be considered a betrayal of the strategic security of the United States; however, the entire system governing the world after World War II has been built on the effort to achieve military dominance by relying on fiat money and seizing the resources of weaker or politically more vulnerable countries at a price lower than the market rate."
She emphasized, "The current ruling class in the United States and Israel has been completely formed and nurtured within this very model. This model is changing; not because a better idea has replaced it (although better ideas exist), but simply because the old model no longer works. This is precisely why Iran's strategic power and its alignment with objective and fundamental realities are so important. We are currently witnessing the collapse of a failed model, while a new and multipolar model is emerging and gaining increasing legitimacy and acceptance among the majority."
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