Jerusalem Post:
US, Israel's joint deception tricked Iran through nuclear talks, Trump comments
Israeli officials were initially concerned that US President Donald Trump's Thursday evening comments, suggesting Israel "might attack," alerted the Iranians.
Israeli officials were initially concerned that US President Donald Trump's Thursday evening comments, suggesting Israel "might attack," alerted the Iranians.
www.jpost.com
“The United States and Israel took part in a joint deception of Iran ahead of the IDF's strikes on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program, a senior Israeli official told
The Jerusalem Post on Friday morning.
According to the official, the nuclear negotiations scheduled for Sunday were part of the deception tactic used against Iran.
Israeli officials were initially concerned that US President Donald Trump's Thursday evening comments, suggesting Israel "might attack," alerted the Iranians.
The statement, which was made at around 7:00 p.m. Israel time, mere hours before the attacks, was perceived as a kind of green light for Israel. The fear that this remark could expose the attack operation ultimately led to Trump's late-night tweet at midnight, stating that "the US seeks a diplomatic solution."…”
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Trump’s truth social post was late night in Jerusalem, just after 5 pm ET last night.
Folks need to examine the timing of Huckabee’s tweet about monitoring the situation — if he posted prematurely, as it appears he did (but maybe not — maybe that’s when emergency notices went to Israelis to take shelter?), then he should be recalled from his post and asked to resign (or just fired). Regardless of the view of whether Israel was justified in tarring this action, it would be a major SNAFU for the U.S. Ambassador to Israel to prematurely tip the attack.
All that said, Netanyahu clearly want to force Trump’s hand here, so call me a little skeptical of the “joint deception” claim beyond Trump Admin clearly knowing ahead of time and trying to repair having practically announced the attack was coming. Hard to know since Trump didn’t issue a statement after this began, which gives others the opportunity to fill the information void.