Israel is publicly distancing themselves from what they’re calling our “contained campaign”. Notice the language their cabinet officials are using and what it implies. This is Israel publicly signaling that they want to expand the war, and that when they do they won’t be coordinating that escalation with the U.S. It’s worth noting that the phrasing of these public statements affords President Trump plausible deniability if/when Israel escalates. One might be wondering, how can Israel escalate without us when the catalyst for this disaster was that Israel needed U.S. military support? Remember—just last week Netanyahu was hinting, again publicly, about Israel’s nuclear capability, which has never officially been confirmed. At the same time, in the last 24hrs reports from Israeli intelligence claim that the Iranians have moved their enriched uranium to the heavily fortified “Pickaxe” Mountain—providing Israel with a justification for potentially using a nuclear weapon. Israel must be meaningfully restrained. Failing to do so means we are likely comfortable with allowing Israel to use a nuclear weapon so long as we can claim we had nothing to do with it. If you think the potential for a nuclear weapon seems far-fetched, play out the options for a military solution in Iran: we don’t have enough troops to invade Iran, so using nuclear weapon becomes the next logical step. This would be catastrophic. This is why we must immediately restrain Israel, pull out of the region, & use economic diplomacy to reopen the SOH.