In The Land Of Contradictions

A reordered Middle East may be in the offing. But, this being the Middle East, it may not.

I write today as a secular American Jew, I’m not an Israeli, or a Zionist. Like so many secular Jews in America, I despise Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who should at the very least be in jail for corruption, and at the most, should be facing an international criminal trial for genocide. I’m glad my grandmother, a kibbutznick, didn’t have to see what has become of her beloved Israel, which is no longer the sole beacon of democracy in the Middle East, or her beloved Golda Meir, Israeli Prime Minister from ’69-‘74, who, like her predecessors, was intent on building an inclusive, modern state out of little more than sand.

It’s an old story, but worth recapping briefly: Netanyahu has been indicted on corruption charges that cannot be prosecuted as long as he is Prime Minister. To maintain his power, and thus his freedom, he has aligned himself with the worst of the worst: the far-right fundamentalists in Israel.

It bears mentioning here that I’m not a big fan of fundamentalism. I don’t care if you’re a fundamentalist Muslim, Jew, Christian, or Dodgers fan. People of the radical stripe are incapable of compromise, or even seeing the world as it is.

According to the best Middle East expert that I can think of, Thomas Freidman, “Israel has a messianic government that is the most extreme in its history and openly aspires to annex the West Bank and possibly Gaza as well. That aspiration is a fundamental threat to American interests, Israel’s interests and the interests of Jews everywhere.”

The ultra-orthodox in Israel do not shy away from the fact that they would like to push Palestinians completely out of Gaza and the West Bank. They are the major impediment to the two state solution, which the United States and the rest of the modern world have sought for decades. Genocide, about which after WWII we loudly proclaimed “never again,” is fine with them.

An important note: they are despised by most religious and secular Jews and Arabs throughout Israel. They do not work, they keep their women wrapped up tight and out of sight, they refuse to serve in the military—compulsory for every other 18-year-old Israeli—and are in short, a drag on Israelis’ desire for peace, societal stability, and economy. Nonetheless, they hold the key to Bibi’s freedom, and he has therefore used the military to unnecessarily prolong the war in Gaza. It is unthinkable to most of us that our people could behave so inhumanely in our name.

Back to where I began: Iran is a toxic force in the Middle East. Through their well-armed proxies like Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Iraq, and Bashar al-Assad in Syria, they’ve had indirect control over those countries for years.

Credit Israel, and yes, Netanyahu, for destroying Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas in Gaza. Assad’s own people forced him to flee Syria. Of all their proxies, the Houthis seem best protected by virtue of their isolation in Yemen. The threat that Iran has posed throughout the region is much less intimidating than it was just a few months ago.

Contradictions abound. We’re not talking New Jersey here. This is still the Middle East, the place where good intentions go to die.

Now seems to be a moment in Iranian history for the masses to foment regime change and finally have the freedom they’ve so richly deserved since the time of Shahs and Islamic revolutionaries.

President Trump took a bold risk in attempting to curtail Tehran’s nuclear-tipped vision. I think it was a good gamble, unlike the history of Israel’s neighbors repeatedly trying to destroy it and failing, and ceding the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula, and Golan Heights from Jordan, Egypt, and Syria, respectively.

There’s a common sense argument, albeit a bit cynical, that says Trump was trying to distract from his domestic problems including his failed birthday/Soviet-style military parade, rising economic uncertainty, and the five-million person “No Kings” march in protest of his defiance of the rule of law, and his inhumane immigration policies that are sweeping up hard working undocumented (and some well-documented) people. Additionally, he’s dealing with a fracture in his MAGA coalition. That’s what happens when you run as an isolationist promising no more foreign entanglements and then and get yourself tangled up in that graveyard of super-powers, the Middle East.

Bombing Iran has alienated the isolationists like Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon, but it has delighted the evangelical base headed by Project 2025 lead author and high-ranking administration official, Russell Vought, a self-identified “Christian nationalist,” and his followers.

How it all shakes out is unknown, but for now, I’ll take a degraded Iran.

©2025 Jon Sinton