Neocons say "continue the war!"

In the four-point proposal package Vice President JD Vance laid out in his post on "X" regarding the results of the November 3 midterm elections, ending the war with Iran came first, and changing relations with Israel came last.

Vance's pointing to the ongoing war with Iran as the root cause of the debacle drew a fierce reaction from the "Neocons," the most fanatical defenders of this war. The Neocon so-called think tanks function to package Israel's interests as American interests and turn them into policy. The Neocons and Israel are twins; they cannot be thought of separately.

The Neocons, who played the leading role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, ran an intense campaign to get Trump to go to war with Iran. How ordinary Americans bear the economic costs of "endless wars" is not a shred of concern to the Neocons. Which party loses the elections is also unimportant. As long as the "Israel Lobby" has enough bipartisan politicians in the US Congress to keep unconditional support for Israel going, everything else is detail.

The Neocons declared war on Vice President Vance for his diplomatic efforts to make a deal with Iran. On the other hand, the Neocons are also trying to drive a wedge between Vance and Trump, thereby making Vance a "lame duck" and blocking his path to the presidential nomination in 2028.

There is a "trench war" underway in Washington. On one side are those who want to end the war with Iran, take relations with Israel out of the "exceptional" category, and focus on "America First." On the other side are the "Israel Firsters" who want the US to keep fighting Israel's wars.

These two articles will be enough to describe the trench war between the "America First" and "Israel First" wings. The first article was published on November 6 by Joe Kent (responsiblestatecraft.org), the other on November 7 under the joint signature of Michael Makovsky and Blaise Misztal (The Hill).

Joe Kent had resigned as Director of the "National Counterterrorism Center" on the grounds that a war against Iran for Israel's sake was against American interests. Makovsky and Misztal are the two most senior executives of the Neocon "Jewish Institute for National Security of America" (JINSA). Both names have worked for years to get the US to go to war with Iran.

Makovsky, who held senior posts at the Pentagon during the George W. Bush era, also made intense efforts to scuttle the "Iran Nuclear Deal" signed by Barack Obama. Indeed, Trump pleased the Neocons greatly by canceling that deal in his first term.

The title of Makovsky and Misztal's joint article was "President Trump: Forget the midterms and take the job in Iran all the way to the end." Arguing that Vice President JD Vance and Iran want Americans to pin the Republicans' heavy midterm defeat on "war" and "Israel," Makovsky and Misztal called on Trump to ignore this view and deliver on his word to "finish the job" against Iran.

Stating that the elections changed the political landscape in Washington but did not change the geopolitical chessboard in the Middle East, Makovsky and Misztal argued that no deal should ever be made with Tehran and that, on the contrary, every covert and overt tool should be used for regime change.

Joe Kent, in his article titled "Trump must end the war today and dismiss all senior officials connected to this war," said, "The time has come to end the war in Iran. This is an undeniable fact, as Vice President Vance also accepts." Kent wanted Trump to dismiss the Secretaries of State and Defense, the CIA Director, and the White House Chief of Staff so that the Neocons could not block him. (Trump did dismiss his Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. But whether he dismissed her in the sense Kent meant is doubtful.)

Joe Kent also wanted US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and his team removed in order to restrain Israel. Noting that Huckabee and his team had clearly shown their loyalty to Israel rather than the US, Kent's closing words were these:

"The American people have made their voice heard loud and clear and have rejected this war. All President Trump needs to do is show the courage to end the war, restrain Israel, and put America first."

It seems obvious that the "trench war" between the "America First" and "Israel First" wings will intensify further and turn into a "front war" during Trump's last two years in office.