Did U.S. Warn Netanyahu He'd Be Alone if He Provokes All-Out War With Hezbollah, Iran?
Retired U.S. Army colonel claims he has reliable sources who say a top CENTCOM official delivered that very message to the Israeli leader
U.S. Central Command Chief Michael Kurilla warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Washington will not “be with him” if he provokes all-out wars with Hezbollah or Iran, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson (ret.) told Judge Andrew Napolitano’s podcast, citing unnamed sources.
Wilkerson said these sources are reliable and that Kurilla delivered the warning during recent trips to Israel.
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The Trends Journal reached out to the State Department, CENTCOM, and the Pentagon for comment but did not receive an immediate response. The U.S.’s official position has been that it will continue to defend Israel against regional threats. U.S. President Joe Biden has vowed to defend Israel against regional threats.
Wilkerson was asked about Israel’s recent provocations in the region, and he said he believes Netanyahu is hoping to pull the U.S. into war with Iran and Hezbollah in hopes that either one retaliates in a way that would compel the U.S. and other Western countries to join the fight, he said.
Wilkerson, citing his sources, said the Kurilla made it clear to Netanyahu that Washington would "know” if Israel provokes a wider war.
CENTCOM said in an earlier statement that Kurilla was in Israel earlier this month to meet with top Israeli defense officials to discuss “common threats.”
They “focused on operational and strategic security challenges, regional cooperation, and efforts to bolster deterrence and counter threats in the Middle East,” according to the statement. (The statement did not mention a meeting with Netanyahu. Wilkerson did not indicate if Kurilla used intermediaries to deliver the message to the Israeli leader.)
Napolitano interjected: Is this speculation on your part, or is it based on sources?
Wilkerson said his analysis is based on “pretty reliable sources.”
But he told Napolitano that the bigger picture is that Biden is finally listening to the Pentagon about these war assessments, which, according to his sources, is why Biden was seething during a recent visit by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Washington. He said Biden was just informed by the Pentagon that it would be a mistake to allow Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia with Western-provided missiles.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the approval would mean war with NATO.
Wilkerson said he was told that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, have been sidelined and the Pentagon has taken over diplomacy in both wars.
“I have to change my evaluation of [Defense] Secretary [Lloyd] Austin if that’s the case because it would mean he listened — finally — to the people in the bowels of the Pentagon who know the truth, and he’s reacting to that, and he told President Biden that and, to Biden’s credit, even though he was furious, he finally took that advice” about the dangers of allowing Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia.
Meanwhile, John Kirby, the White House national security spokesperson, told reporters on Wednesday that the U.S. was not involved in the pager attack on Hezbollah and said, “We still don’t want to see an escalation of any kind. We don’t believe that the way to solve where we’re at in this crisis is by additional military operations at all,” according to The Times of Israel.
Napolitano asked Wilkerson who told Kurilla to deliver the message to Netanyahu about invading Lebanon, and Wilkerson said he believed it was Austin and that it was Austin who convinced Biden to give him that command to deliver to Kurilla.
Scott Ritter, the former UN weapons inspector, said in an interview in July that the Biden administration is fully aware of Hezbollah’s capabilities and the damage it could inflict on Israel if a full-scale war breaks out in the north.
“Biden knows one thing, at least his administration knows one thing: If Israel goes into a full-scale war with Hezbollah, Israel is probably going to be destroyed,” he told “Dialogue Works.” “That it’s the end of Israel. Israel can’t survive that fight. Hezbollah has the ability to blanket Israel with accurate long-range missiles from head-to-toe, left-to-right…that Israel can’t shoot down.”
Not holding my breath, but maybe they are finally coming to the same conclusion about out of control state terror that a judge came to when defining pornography, "I'll know it when I see it"
There is obvious conflict between the Pentagon and global financial interests. Putin's timely intervention has provoked US military leaders to back off from provoking Russia. They must quickly deliver that same message to their counterparts in the UK who gave Ukraine the authority to strike deep inside Russia. Ukraine struck Russia only hours ago, destroying a weapons depot 300 km inside Russia.