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Daniel Levy: Netanyahu Drew Trump Into a War Long Sought by Israel
Former Israeli negotiator Daniel Levy argued on Democracy Now! that the expanding war on Iran reflects a long-standing strategic objective in Israel: drawing the United States into a military confrontation that previous administrations, despite broad support for Israeli regional dominance, had ultimately resisted.
According to Levy, for decades Israeli leaders repeatedly framed Iran as standing on the threshold of becoming a nuclear power while pressing Washington to act militarily. What changed, he said, was not the argument but the American president hearing it. In Donald Trump, Levy argued, Benjamin Netanyahu found a leader more willing than his predecessors to accept escalation without a coherent endgame.
“This is about how far Israel can extend its dominion,” Levy said, describing what he called a new regional phase no longer defined by old U.S. restraint but by what he termed a push toward a “greater Israel” logic — one built on military supremacy, weakened neighboring states, and diminished deterrence across the region.
For Levy, the war is not merely about nuclear claims or missile threats. It is part of a larger strategic continuum that includes Gaza, intensified pressure in the occupied West Bank, continuing military reach into Lebanon and Syria, and now direct confrontation with Tehran.
He argued that weakening Iran militarily is viewed in Israeli strategic thinking as essential to removing one of the last serious regional constraints on that project.
At the same time, Levy rejected the idea that Washington is simply being manipulated without agency. He pointed instead to an American political structure in which neoconservative influence, ideological alignment, and institutional deference to Israeli priorities create the conditions for escalation.
“The war would not have happened if Israel’s leader had not been there whispering in the president’s ear,” he said, citing repeated high-level meetings between Netanyahu and Trump in recent months.
Levy also warned that claims this war serves core American interests collapse under scrutiny. In his view, the strategic benefits are overwhelmingly framed through Israeli priorities, while the United States assumes reputational damage, economic strain, military risk, and deeper regional entanglement.
He suggested that even current diplomatic talk may reflect tactical maneuvering rather than serious de-escalation. Channels through Turkey, Oman, Qatar, Egypt, and Pakistan remain active, he noted, but warned that previous U.S. diplomacy has often functioned as cover while military pressure continued.
“If you think you can impose in negotiations what you failed to impose militarily,” Levy said, “the talks are doomed.”
He described the battlefield dynamic as increasingly asymmetric: Israel pursuing what he called an ambitious strategy aimed not simply at regime change but state fragmentation, while Iran seeks endurance — testing whether U.S. and Israeli military pressure can be politically sustained over time.
Levy also challenged attempts to separate settler violence from state power in the occupied West Bank, arguing that armed settlers operate within a framework backed directly by the Israeli military.
“There is no armed settler militia without the IDF,” he said, stressing that the system of territorial control remains state-driven rather than incidental.
While global attention has shifted toward Iran, Levy warned that Palestinians continue bearing the immediate cost of regional escalation. Military operations continue in Gaza Strip, displacement deepens, humanitarian restrictions persist, and large-scale operations in refugee camps across the West Bank intensify.
His conclusion was stark: the current military strategy may generate severe long-term blowback for Israel itself, but for now the burden remains concentrated on civilians already trapped inside expanding zones of war.
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