GIRALDI: Another week from hell

A bid to end a war might be sabotaged by Netanyahu

BY PHILIP GIRALDI

The week started on a positive note with President Donald Trump uncharacteristically declaring that a “memorandum of understanding” (MOU) had been achieved by US and Iranian negotiators assisted by Pakistani and Qatari mediators to suspend military action and begin 60 days of discussions in pursuit of a peace agreement.

The move was based on what was described as a fourteen-point listing of the steps that would be undertaken to move the process along, including concessions dealing with what are being called “red lines” by both parties.

The negotiations are predicated on certain steps being taken right away, including toll-free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, ceasing Israeli attacks on and occupation of Lebanon, ending US sanctions against Iran, and returning some frozen cash to Tehran.

The MOU was signed electronically by both U.S. President Trump and the Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday, with a formal hard copy signing in Switzerland by Vice President JD Vance and the head of the Iranian delegation scheduled for Friday.

That signing would initiate 60 days of negotiations that hopefully would lead to a final peace agreement ending the war.

Interestingly, the meeting site, originally planned for Geneva, may have been changed to a more easily securable ski resort in Burgenstock, by one report, due to fears that Israel might try to sabotage the gathering, possibly by assassinating one or more members of the Iranian delegation.

Unfortunately, however, Israel predictably did in any event do its best to cancel the ceasefire leading to peace talks by doubling down on its bombing and other attacks on Lebanon.

It was known that Iran had demanded a cessation of hostilities directed at ally Lebanon as a condition for starting the talks, and it now appears that Tehran will again close the Strait due to Israel’s aggression.

This provocative response was more-or-less expected coming from Netanyahu and done without any heed for the explicit warnings that came from both Trump and Vance that touched on the lopsided bilateral relationship with Israel. Israel’s National Security Minister Ben-Gvir nevertheless ignored possible consequences and asserted on Friday that “All Lebanon must burn!” and that “In the Middle East … you have to go berserk. To obliterate.”

Trump, who this week declared that there are “no limits on his power,” for his part, reportedly cursed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call after Netanyahu publicly asserted his right and willingness to do whatever it takes to “defend” his country.

Trump even denounced Israel’s “overkill” bombing of apartment buildings in Beirut just because, it was claimed, a suspected Hezbollah supporter had walked into them. Vance went so far as to remind Israel that if indeed, as Israel and its supporters keep asserting, the Jewish state has a right to defend itself, “whatever that takes,” then Iran has the same right. And he also warned Netanyahu and his hardliners that “If I was in the Cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking [the United States] the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world.” Vance concluded with “You can’t just kill your way out of every problem.”

Vance’s warning may have had an effect as there were unconfirmed reports on Friday that Israel and Hezbollah might have come together for some kind of ceasefire though the issue of Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon was not addressed.

Solving the Lebanon problem, even on a temporary basis, is critical to proceeding farther with the conditions established in the MOU. Predictably, the demands to comply on Lebanon coming from the Trump Administration most definitely did produce a predictable response from congressman Randy Fine, a Jewish Israel-first-last-and-always overweight slug from Florida who opined that “I thought JD’s comments yesterday were absolutely inappropriate and frankly disgusting.”

Curiously, Netanyahu also climbed on board with a rebuttal, claiming that Israel’s compulsion to go to war with Iran and destroy it is only due to fear that the Iranians will develop a nuclear weapon and use it on the Jewish state.

This is a fake argument that is regularly produced by Israel and its friends like Fine and the Republican Senatorial troika of Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton and Lindsey Graham.

The reality, however, is that it is Israel that has nuclear weapons in a secret and undeclared arsenal of possibly 400 or more bombs, while US intelligence has reliably declared that Iran has no such thing nor even a program to move in that direction.

Israel has even crafted a policy referred to as the Samson Option, which could lead to nuclear attacks on numerous countries that might be considered not supportive enough of Israel. That presumably might include the United States if the White House were to end its involvement in the war against Iran…

Iran, in fact, subsequently postponed Friday’s Swiss signing and technical-level talks with the U.S. on Thursday in protest against “continued” Israeli ceasefire violations, mainly in southern Lebanon, consisting of the sustained attacks that were supposed to be stopped per the very first clause in the text of the MOU. One presumes that Iran, which, for good reasons does not trust the US and its controller Israel in negotiations, which previously have been set-ups that have led to assassinations.

This time around Iran will not commit without considerable evidence that there will be honest dealing from both Washington and Tel Aviv

In the current situation, Pakistani government sources revealed that Tehran’s chief negotiator Bagher Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi were “all set” to leave for Switzerland to hold the direct talks with Washington, but they pulled out of their scheduled trip at the last minute following “directives” from the “top Iranian leadership” objecting to the Israeli behavior.

Iran did not specify whether the decision came directly from Supreme Leader Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei, who has already said he has a “different view” on the US-Iran deal to end the war, possibly implying that he is not prepared to concede anything to Israel/US. US Vice President JD Vance wisely canceled his trip to Switzerland after Islamabad conveyed Tehran’s decision to Washington. No new date or venue for the talks has been decided according to the Pakistanis but they did leave the door open, declaring that “Pakistan is in touch with both sides to set a new date for the technical-level talks to reach a final agreement.”

Trump is meanwhile taking considerable heat from his former close associates who identify as Zionists, though one might refer to them more accurately as “Israel Firsters” given that that is where their actual loyalty lies. This already includes his principal donor Miriam Adelson who has called him a “betrayer.” This list of enemies inevitably includes the many members of Congress from both parties, who have been bribed by Israel’s American-Jewish billionaires, with clowns like Senator Ted Cruz from Texas inevitably leading the charge. And then there is the Jewish dominated media, with talk show Zionist fanatics like Mark Levin screaming his outrage at “giving things” to Iran in the MOU. Ironically, Levin notoriously some months back declared a grinning Trump to be America’s first Jewish president. Trump responded “It’s true!”

So Trump has uncharacteristically decided to rein in his Israeli masters because he desperately needs peace to give time to repair the increasingly energy deprived world economy which is threatening to impact negatively on the US due to his collaboration in Netanyahu’s awful choice to destroy Iran. There is a midterm election coming up which looks likely to return the Democrats to power in Congress and if that happens, there is already talk of impeachment for Trump!

What all of the above really comes down to is an understanding that Israel is poison for the United States and also for the other countries mostly in Europe that choose to look the other way as it commits war crimes currently including the horrific genocide in Gaza and the invasion and bombing of Lebanon. Israel is manifestly a rogue nation that must be constrained and discouraged rather than coddled and protected. It gets away with what it gets away with largely due to the lopsided relationship with a powerful United States that it has obtained through corruption of the US political system. Ironically, Washington even looks the other way when Israel cold-bloodedly kills Americans as it did with the 34 crewmen on the USS Liberty in 1967. More recently, it has killed American journalists and visitors without any consequences coming from the US State Department. And beyond the killing, there are the wars that the United States enters into due to Israel including its involvement in Lebanon in the 1980s, as well as with Syria, and with Iraq.

And the killing tendency suggests possibilities that are even more dreadful to contemplate, with an increasing number of Americans convinced that Israel was involved in the assassination of President John F Kennedy and in 9/11 just for starters, both of which might quite plausibly have been carried out in support of “Israeli interests” since they enabled the Jewish state to acquire nuclear weapons and make Washington a partner in the war against “radical Islam.” And there is also the strange case of the more recent murder of Charlie Kirk, bits of which are only starting to surface now.

As is well attested, shortly before his death Kirk openly declared his rejection of Israel’s dominant role in US foreign policy under presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump in particular. There have been some serious questions raised about the technical aspects of the killing itself which continue to be unanswered by the FBI in particular, but one interesting connection was recently described by Greyzone journalist Max Blumenthal “Charlie Kirk’s media empire and his right-wing activist organization, Turning Point USA (TPUSA), have come under the control of the Israel-directed forces he spent the last months of his life antagonizing.

Erika Kirk now claims her husband supported Israel to the end, while TPUSA misrepresents his opposition to war on Iran.

The Charlie Kirk Show is now distributed by a federally registered agent of Israel tasked with seeding American media with Zionist propaganda.

It is part of a $46 million dollar annual contract between the Israeli government and Brad Parscale, the former chief of staff for Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign. This may be the largest lobbying contract in the history of foreign influence operations in the US.”

Kirk was assassinated on September 10, 2025 during his American Comeback Tour in Utah. Within two hours of the killing, Benjamin Netanyahu appeared on Israeli television and said that his country had not done it, which certainly aroused suspicions that it had!

Eight days later, Parscale, a registered foreign agent of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, acquired responsibility for a propaganda agenda “tailored to Gen Z audiences across platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, podcasts, and other relevant digital and broadcast outlets.”

Since Kirk’s killing, his successors have done their best to bury his strongly expressed opposition to war on Iran, as well as his anger with Netanyahu and his army of well-funded lobbyists in the US. Kirk’s widow and replacement as TPUSA CEO, Erika Kirk, now insists falsely that she and her husband never wavered in their support for Israel.

So Israel is continuing to behave as Israel behaves, which is abominably. Will Trump, who only recently showed up an hour late at an important G7 meeting in Paris, announcing that “I am the boss!” to the assembled heads of state, have the intestinal fortitude to confront Netanyahu and his friends? Will a muddled Trump have the confidence to take on Netanyahu and his army of US lobbyists particularly if they are willing to reveal blackmail material on him generated by Jeffrey Epstein?

Trump has plenty of ego but will that be enough as he can also be embarrassingly stupid and pretentious, alienating people he has to work and cooperate with. For example, in a brief interview in Paris Trump said in a demeaning tone that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni “wanted a picture with me so badly… She’s probably happy I talked to her. I didn’t have to talk to her.”

He reportedly then elaborated “She begged me to take a picture with her. She wanted a picture with me so ​badly. I wouldn’t have taken it, but I felt sorry for her.”

Giorgia Meloni responded that the whole thing from Trump was a lie and “made up” so she wondered why he felt compelled to do that sort of thing at a top level foreign policy gathering saying “I do not know why the president of the United States behaves this way toward his allies — it is certainly not the first time this has happened.” And there were consequences. Shortly after Meloni’s response was posted online, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced that he was canceling a visit to the US that was scheduled for next week demonstrating that the way Trump comports himself does have a impact on how potentially friendly foreign nations have begun to regard the United States.

So how will Donald Trump deal with Netanyahu if he seriously wants to end the war with Iran? Israel ‘s frequently violent response when others stand up to it is to use threats that sometimes develop into false flag attacks or even exploding pager assassinations such as were used in Lebanon and more. Corrupted politicians who are loyal to Israel infest the US government and other Zionist loyalists control much of America’s critical infrastructure most notably the national media. So where will it go? Believe me, it just might get a lot worse!

Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is

https://councilforthenationalinterest.org

address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is inform@cnionline.org.

The views of this author do not necissarily reflect those of The Trends Journal