[ Editorial ] No Loss for Iran

With the operation to force America's hand having collapsed, panic now grips Israel and its unwavering backers—who have managed the singular achievement of alienating the rest of the world.

AI caricacture

Ah, the latest round of customs duties strikes !—how delightfully predictable.

Countries that persist in trading with Iran couldn’t care less about America’s sanctions imposed on Iran for years. Why would they? The main players are almost exclusively Asian: China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, and the like. Toss in Russia and—surprise—Turkey, now conveniently singled out as the primary target of these fresh tariffs.

Turkey, that steadfast NATO ally, apparently gave the Iranians a discreet heads-up last summer about the brewing trouble. Why the courtesy? Because Ankara views with profound displeasure the way Israel and the United States have been instrumentalizing certain Kurdish factions—lest we forget, a rather substantial portion of Iran’s population is Kurdish.

And while we’re at it, Turkey has been spinning like a dervish in fury over the so-called Great Sea Interconnector project, that grand American-backed (and, by pure coincidence, European Union-funded) scheme to hook up the European electricity grid to Israel’s via Greece and Cyprus. To the point where Ankara dispatched its navy to quite pointedly “intimidate” the French company Nexans’ laying the cable—because apparently, the question no one in Brussels bothered to ask was: why on earth should we tie our power grid to a country that is neither Western nor European? Ukraine’s endless entanglement wasn’t lesson enough?

One might politely suggest that before lecturing the world on moral high ground and economic coercion, perhaps Washington—and its ever-eager European partners—should first reflect on the wisdom of turning energy infrastructure into yet another geopolitical chess piece. But reflection, it seems, remains in short supply these days.

Two men, each ensconced in the highest office of their respective nations, now find themselves teetering on the edge of political precipices that grow steeper by the day.

In Washington, Donald Trump confronts an increasingly combustible domestic landscape. His second term has been marred by the conspicuous abandonment—or at the very least, the conspicuous ‘delay’—of several signature campaign pledges: the full release of the Epstein files (still heavily redacted or stalled, much to the fury of the majority of his own base), aggressive immigration enforcement that has produced high-profile tragedies rather than unqualified triumphs, and a promised restraint on overseas military adventures that appears more rhetorical than real.

The economy, that perennial kingmaker of American elections, remains stubbornly anemic: growth is tepid, inflation lingers in public memory, and the most visible fiscal achievement seems to be lavish tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy paired with ballooning deficits.

Polls in early January 2026 show Trump’s job approval hovering in the low-to-mid 40s, with even weaker marks on economic stewardship—hardly the stuff of midterm momentum. Americans, as history reliably reminds us, tend to vote their wallets; when those wallets feel pinched, retribution at the ballot box follows.

Adding fuel to the fire is the January 7, 2026, fatal shooting of Rénée Good a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident, by an ICE agent during what federal authorities describe as a justified act of self-defense amid an immigration operation. Protests have erupted, vigils held, and lawsuits filed against the federal government. The far left has attempted—thus far without widespread traction—to elevate the incident into a new George Floyd moment. Yet the optics are poisonous: a high-profile death at the hands of federal immigration enforcers in a sanctuary-minded city only amplifies accusations of overreach and incompetence.

Across the ocean, Benjamin Netanyahu clings to power amid a cascade of legal and political tempests that would have felled lesser figures long ago. The long-running corruption trial—encompassing corruption, bribery and fraud—grinds on, with cross-examination dragging into 2026 and a verdict potentially not arriving until 2027. A formal pardon request to President Isaac Herzog, bolstered by a highly publicized letter from Donald Trump urging clemency, has met with polite inaction at best and outright denial of any imminent resolution.

Netanyahu’s closest aides remain entangled in the explosive Qatargate scandal: Yonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein (among others) face grave accusations of accepting substantial Qatari payments to promote Doha’s image—precisely during Qatar’s mediation role with Hamas—while allegedly operating from within the Prime Minister’s Office. Charges include corruption, illegal financing, contact with a foreign agent, breach of trust, and money laundering. Arrests, detentions, fugitive statuses (enter Yisrael Einhorn, now wanted and reportedly in Serbia), and court battles over gag orders continue to dominate headlines. The affair reeks of betrayal at the highest levels, especially given Qatar’s ties to Hamas (encouraged by Netanyhau since 1997).

Israel’s next Knesset elections are firmly scheduled for no later than October 27, 2026—just weeks before America’s midterms. Current polling suggests Netanyahu’s coalition is vulnerable; should it collapse, his path leads straight to conviction and prison.

The man thus appears willing to gamble the nation’s stability and possibly survival rather than yield the helm and face justice like the man he is not. But as the chorus has wearily noted since October 7, 2023, this is hardly a revelation; it is merely the latest chapter in a familiar, tragic script.

One might observe that both leaders now embody the same peril: the intoxicating conviction that power is worth any cost, even when the polls, the courts, the streets, and simple arithmetic scream otherwise. The midterms loom for Trump; the Knesset vote for Netanyahu. In both cases, the verdict of the voters may prove more unforgiving than any judge. Tick-tock, gentlemen. The clocks are synchronized.

[ Editorial ] American-Israel Party of Aggravated Corruption