“What convinced Iran that it could strike Israel directly?”  Channel 12 journalist Amit Segal asked.

“The answer, many would argue, is Donald Trump.”

“Iran may not possess a world-class air force or navy, but it has an extraordinary ability to detect hesitation in its adversaries. For years, Hamas and Hezbollah identified this exact hesitation on Israel’s part and exploited it to gain ground. Tehran is now doing the same thing to the US. It’s like the idiom: give them an inch, and they’ll start firing at a mile of your sovereign territory.”

“Two months of projected US weakness and a blind obsession with securing a deal have brought us straight to this moment. The collapse began when Washington chose to look the other way during Iranian missile and drone launches in the Gulf. It deepened each time the U.S. conceded ground just to keep Tehran at the negotiating table, and reached its peak when the US  pressured Israel to avoid striking Beirut and pushed for a fragile ceasefire in southern Lebanon.”

“Tehran smells desperation and knows that the U.S. wants to avoid a wider confrontation at almost every cost. An adviser to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said it aptly when he declared after the Beirut strike: ‘The enemy set the negotiating table on fire for the third time.’

“So far, it seems Iran guessed correctly. Overnight, Trump went on Fox News with a message for Tehran: “You’ve shot your missiles, that’s enough, get back to the negotiating table and make a deal.”

“Trump is simply repackaging Joe Biden’s infamous April 2024 warning to Iran: ‘Don’t.” Judging by the multiple ballistic barrages launched from Iran this morning, it promises to be just as effective.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)