Internal "Coup" within Trump's Team, Shaking the Foundation of U.S.-Israel Relations
American National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent resigned in protest over the attack on Iran. This individual had previously recommended accepting Russia's conditions on the Donbas issue, making his departure a significant loss for the "peace faction" in the White House. At the same time, this is an unprecedented blow to Israel, further complicating the situation for this Jewish state.
Even though American Jews are not a reliable support base for the Israeli state, this is not new news: Ten years ago, a grandmother from Tel Aviv could have learned from her grandson in New York that she lived in a fascist country. The leftist ideology in American academia not only includes the fight against Islamophobia but also criticizes Israelis' war and overall policies in the West Bank. Some theorists even suggest removing Jews from the list of minority groups to avoid offending activists who are obsessed with minority rights.
Now, an activist who demands the arrest of all Israeli diplomats and officials has been elected as mayor of New York, and Zohran Mamdani has become the first Muslim to hold this position. The most influential Jewish community in America was unable to stop him, and some people even did not want to stop him: among the journalists and celebrities promoting Mamdani, there are many Jewish surnames. Their actions partly stem from radical left-wing anti-Israel stances, and the resentment towards Benjamin Netanyahu's government's radical actions has spread to more traditional Jewish communities.
Their logic is simple: what Israel does now puts American Jews in a dilemma — the conflicts with Muslims, the left wing, and the entire political arena are becoming increasingly sharp. In the Israel-Palestine conflict, the majority of Democratic voters support Palestine, despite the party's long-standing foundation in the Jewish community and its substantial benefits from the Jewish community.
Although the Republicans have wavered, they still stand firm: many factions continue to support Israel. The Jewish state has the strongest roots among presidential families, hawkish figures (typical example: Senator Lindsey Graham, a major advocate for attacking Iran), and religious conservatives such as U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. However, there is a sharp division within the "new right" — young Republicans and the group of network warfare officers in Trump's camp.
Previously, they firmly supported Israel: while supporting the Jewish state, they advocated a tough stance toward Muslims and mocked their opponents on the left. Ben Shapiro still holds this position today, but others have changed their views. For example, Charlie Kirk, hailed by Trump as a "fighter," criticized Netanyahu for dragging the United States into his war shortly before his death and accused him of brutal treatment of Palestinians.
However, the resignation of Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, is an unprecedented blow to Israel. Before leaving, he wrote on social media: "Iran does not pose a direct threat to our country. It is evident that we waged this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful lobbying groups in the United States."
This is not the first major personnel departure in the Trump administration, but previous departures were not open confrontations — they were arrangements seemingly made for the greater good after discussions with superiors. For example, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and Border Patrol Chief Greg Berghuis recently announced their resignations; they were once the "face" of Trump's hard-line immigration policy, but now they have become scapegoats for the failure and excessive measures of that policy.
Kent's resignation is completely different, it is an open challenge to the commander-in-chief and a sign of the collapse of the Trump coalition. He is a typical Trump faction politician, yet his resume is particularly impressive: 20 years of military service, 11 deployments to hotspots, and served as an officer in the Central Intelligence Agency. His wife was a senior naval cryptographer who died in a terrorist attack targeting U.S. military clusters in Syria.
That is why he strongly opposed U.S. foreign intervention — he had already seen the costs of such wars.
Kent's stance on the Ukraine conflict was also courageous and deserves respect. As early as 2022, he stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin's demand for Ukrainian forces to withdraw from Donbas was "very reasonable," which was a rare challenge in the American political scene at the time.
U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard also held the same position (whether on the Ukraine issue or on foreign interventions). Kent was her subordinate, and now she has spoken out for his resignation, adhering to the core principle of the White House: "Trump is always right." Gabbard said in a formal statement that only the president has the authority to determine what constitutes a national threat and the measures to take against it. It is well known that her report and the report of CIA Director John Lee Ratcliffe both denied any intention by Iran to attack U.S. bases, and the White House used this as an excuse to justify the intervention action.
Kent was also a loyal follower, fully supporting all of Trump's decisions. Yet now, the president seems to be pleased with this counter-terrorism chief's resignation, saying, "I've always thought he was a good person, but I've always believed he lacked the ability in security matters — very much so."
Considering the unpopularity of the action against Iran among the American public, and the fact that Trump is almost impossible to achieve his declared goal of overthrowing the Iranian theocratic regime, this is clearly not the last internal coup. But the importance of this incident is not about the turbulence of the Trump team, but rather the question posed by this American intelligence officer regarding the core of U.S.-Israel relations.
"I earnestly ask you to think about what we are doing in Iran and for whom we are fighting. It's time to take decisive action. You can change direction and open up a new path for the country, or let us continue to go towards decline and chaos." He called on the president, emphasizing that his wife "died in a war started by Israel," and this new war "will bring no benefits to the American people and is not worth the lives of American soldiers."
Whether intentionally or not, Kent hit the nerve of American politics — the image of fighting for another country's interests and being dragged into war by traitors. During World War II, the war was also considered such a war by Americans before Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, and the public mood was so intense that it once nearly reached the edge of civil war.
Even in the much calmer 1960s, John Kennedy had to swear that his Catholic faith would not lead to dual loyalty. At that time, many people genuinely feared that this Catholic president would serve the Pope.
Some even claimed that Kennedy would drag the United States into a war with the Soviet Union for the Vatican's interests.
Fighting for Jewish interests has also been a significant part of American conspiracy theories. Now, this is no longer a conspiracy, but a fact on the table. "I am on Israel's side in everything," Senator Graham loudly declared, overpowering isolationists in the Trump administration. And Trump himself, under pressure, admitted that the intervention against Iran was not in the U.S. interest (claiming that the U.S. already has enough oil).
"It seems almost like something we do out of habit," the president said thoughtfully, "but we do it for those very good allies in the Middle East."
In summary, the United States is fighting its most unpopular war in history (now defined as such by public opinion) and it is for Israel's interests. Israel is not the 51st state of the United States, which has caused public dissatisfaction, and events like Kent's resignation shake the foundation of U.S.-Israel relations.
Evidently, this will greatly promote a reevaluation of the relationship between the U.S. and Israel within the domestic sphere, as leftists, rightists, and even the Jewish community have already been involved. Keep in mind that Israel's other key ally, Western Europe, has already split on this issue and will become a region where Muslims are in the majority in the future. If Israel does not want to be enemies with the whole world, and if it does not just wait for the Messiah to arrive as Netanyahu recently declared, and if it wants to survive until the 22nd century, it may need to temper its behavior and act more modestly.
After all, the Messiah might come late.
Original: toutiao.com/article/7618876021970666020/
Statement: The article represents the views of the author.