From Today's Israeli Press
GEOGRAPHY MATTERS
SABOTEUR: Nahum Barnea asserts in Yedioth Ahronoth that Netanyahu went to Washington to thwart Trump in Iran and Gaza.
59 YEARS LATE: Nadav Shragai claims in Israel Hayom that what Ben-Gurion, and others understood long ago, the government understood only now.
ONE OF US: Ari Shavit argues in Makor Rishon that Trump's unprecedented success in the Mideast stems from his brutish disposition.
THE MISSILE IN THE ROOM: Michael Milstein stresses in Yedioth Ahronoth that the regional architecture and balance of power are expected to soon change even more.
SHIITE CRACKS: Zvi Bar'el proclaims in Haaretz that after the war with Israel, Hezbollah finds itself threatened from within.
TALKING THROUGH AIRCRAFT CARRIERS: Yaakov Katz contends in The Jerusalem Post that Trump is speaking the language of power in high-stakes Iran talks.
From Today's Arabic Press
TACTICAL DISAGREEMENTS
DIVERGENCE: The apparent divergence between Trump and Netanyahu over Iran, with Trump "insisting" on continuing the talks despite Netanyahu's concerns, is a tactical disagreement between allies who fully agree that Tehran is a "threat" to their interests but differ in their assessment of its ranking on their respective priority scales, maintains Lebanese commentator Yahiya Dabouq in Friday's left-leaning pro-Hezbollah Beirut daily al-Akhbar. But even if Israel's inability to dictate conditions that conflict with U.S. calculations has been demonstrated, the two allies will most likely act jointly if negotiations fail.
ONLY GRIM FACES: Trump was not bluffing when he announced after his closed meeting with Netanyahu that no final decision had been reached regarding war on Iran, even though his deployment of warships in the region is clearly a bluff meant to intimidate Iran into submitting to U.S./Israeli demands, insists Editor-in-Chief 'Abdelbari 'Atwan on Friday's London-based, pan-Arab www.raialyoum.com. But this bluff backfired when the Iranian leadership remained steadfast and emphasized the cost of war, providing Trump with reasons for avoiding a confrontation in which thousands of U.S. soldiers could be killed.
CONTRADICTIONS AND AMBIGUITIES: Now that Netanyahu has signed on to Israel's accession to Trump's Board of Peace, a clear contradiction has risen within the Board's structure that threatens to torpedo it from within, argues Lebanese commentator Tony Khouri on Friday's Lebanese www.elnashra.com. For Israel is a party to the war for which the Board was established and should only participate through negotiations in the peace process the Board is supposed to initiate, while to date there is no clear mechanism for Palestinian representation within it; there are therefore serious doubts about the Board's peaceful mission.
STATEMENTS AND SPEECHES: While Trump has recurrently referred to Gaza in his statements, only vague remarks in opposition to Israeli plans to annex the West Bank have been issued by officials in his administration, notes Jordanian commentator Hazem 'Ayyad in the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Amman daily al-Sabeel. Meanwhile, Arab, European, and international reactions to recent Israeli annexationist decisions will not halt these plans; they only confirm that the West Bank is heading toward a scenario worse than Gaza's, while Israel pursues a policy of destructive ambiguity in its schemes to take official control of the entire area.
"THE EPSTEINIAN INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY": The partial revelation of the Epstein files has already exposed an international community that exists in parallel with the ordinary international community, but which calls the real shots when it comes to deciding what happens, proclaims Palestinian commentator Mohammad Yaghi in Friday's leading Palestinian daily al-Ayyam. It is a network composed of elites who enjoy legal, moral, and political immunity, that operates beyond the bounds of reason, and opts for illogical and meaningless global decisions, such as defending genocidal Israel while inciting a devastating war against Iran on the pretext of violence against protestors.