by Eric Peters
June 20, 2025 - Founding Father John Adams was no fool. He (unlike Thomas Jefferson, an admirable man in many respects but a fool in this respect) did not believe France was Amerika’s ally. He understood that France had interests and that France’s interests temporarily jibed with those of the nascent united States of America as regards the latter’s attempt to secede from the British empire; France being at odds with the British empire at the time.
The Comte de Vergennes - who was the French King’s foreign minister - was also no fool. He - like Adams - also understood that the Franco-Amerikan alliance was one of interest rather than affection. George Washington understood this too. He declined the importunings of Citizen Genet - the new French emissary to the FPSA after the French king lost his head to the Jacobins - who sought American involvement on France’s side against the British on the basis of “friendship” with France.
The state of Israel has interests, too.
The question before the (FPSA) is whether the interests of the state of Israel are congruent with the interests of the people of the (FPSA). Specifically, does it make Amerika great again to involve itself in a war with Iran - a country that has not attacked the (FPSA) and only responded to an attack by the state of Israel, which openly says it will not allow other states to possess the nuclear deterrent it itself possesses?
How so?
Does it serve their interests if Amerikans to go to war with Iraq? It may have served the interests of the people who have operational control over the government of the (FPSA), but that is of course something often incongruent with the interests of the people of the (FPSA).
Is Iran the enemy of the people of the (FPSA)? How so? Has Iran attacked the (FPSA)? Can it attack the (FPSA)? Iran by all accounts does not possess the means to do so in any meaningful sense as it lacks missiles capable of reaching the (FPSA) and lacks even one crude, WWII-type nuclear weapon while the (FPSA) has, according to most estimates, something on the order of 5,000 nuclear weapons, including fusion bombs with yields in the megatons. Are the Iranians stupid? Their culture and history suggest they are not. The ululating bogeyman conjured by those who want a war with Israel is almost as silly as the “COVID”-is-going-to-get-you bogeyman except with much more serious implications.
It is reasonable to assume the Iranians would like to have a nuclear deterrent for the same reason the (FPSA and Israel) have such a deterrent. Would the state of Israel have launched its recent attack if the Iranians did have a nuclear deterrent? Almost certainly not - because the Israelis are not stupid, either. They know it serves no one’s interests to uncork the atomic genie. This would restrain them from attacking Iran unless Iran attacked them first, which Iran is not likely to do given Israel’s nuclear capability.
But Israel does have interests, like any other state. More finely, the people who have operational control over the state of Israel have interests. They wish to be able to dominate the region, which they can do so long as they are the only ones in possession of the atomic genie. They can attack at will - as they just have. They can perpetrate atrocities - as in Gaza - with impunity because what is anyone going to do about it? If Egypt or any other nearby state were to intervene on behalf of the Gazans, what would the state of Israel do? What would it be restrained from doing if Egypt also had the atomic genie?
Israel’s interests, then, are hegemonic control over the area around Israel. The power to bully other states, in other words. Is that congruent with the interests of Amerikans?
It is a question John Adams would have asked.