CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

America’s Israel: The Moral Cost of Complicity

Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

The foisting of a Jewish state in the heart of Palestine was an arrogant imperial decision that has left a trail of carnage in West Asia; most recently, the genocide in Gaza. How much bloodletting will satiate Israel and its American enabler?

In his lawless rabid tirade of 1 April, President Donald Trump threatened even more savagery and crimes against humanity.  He made it clear that the U.S. is not a bystander but a direct accomplice in Israeli atrocities and war crimes.  

What was absent from Trump’s speech was any mention that a courageous insider came forward on 17 March 2026 to tell the truth.  Joseph Kent, a veteran with 11combat deployments, and former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, was that person.  In his resignation letter to Trump, he poignantly wrote:

“Early in this administration, high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage war with Iran.  This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States, and that you should strike now, there was a clear path to swift victory.  This was a lie and is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war that cost our nation the lives of thousands of our best men and women.  We cannot make this mistake again.”

It should be noted that previous U.S. presidents have faced comparable pressures and made similar mistakes since the “American father of Israel,” President Harry S. Truman, gave his blessing to the European Zionists’ illegal claim to Palestine in May 1948.  For the first time, on that date, Israel appeared on the world map.

The consequences of Israel’s century-long project to reshape West Asia in its image have been tragic. Genocide in occupied Gaza and the West Bank, wars on Lebanon and Iran are its current bids to disfigure the region, to gain dominance no matter the cost.  

Iran has, since 1979, challenged Israel’s expansionist project to control territory “between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River,” which is written into the 1977 election manifesto and electoral platform of the Likud Party; the dominant party for 49 years.  

The U.S.-Israel war, “Operation Epic Fury,” is being fought to degrade Iran as a West Asian power. The war has unveiled to the world Tel Aviv’s dependence on Washington to secure regional hegemony, as well as its outsized influence over American politicians and policymakers.  

In retrospect, it........

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