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Source: https://www.jns.org/despite-warning-signs-the-us-israel-alliance-is-still-solid/
Tehran's Dreams of Hegemony over the Middle East Are Gone
(JNS) Jonathan S. Tobin - All over the globe, antisemitism is surging. Yet the meetings held in Florida this week between President Trump and other members of his administration with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu are a reason for optimism after the president expressed support for Netanyahu and aimed threats at Hamas and Iran. The relationship between the two nations remains close and forward-thinking. During the last 12 months, the forces seeking Israel's destruction in the Middle East and elsewhere can definitively be described as the losers. Israel and the Jewish people remain stronger than at any other point in memory. That's not the tone of most of the coverage of Israel and its ties with its ally. A constant drumbeat of stories has attempted to make the case that Trump and Netanyahu are on a certain collision course about the next steps with respect to conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Iran. But for now, claims that the alliance is about to crack up are wrong. There is no doubt that Hamas is far weaker now than when it started the war, with no immediate prospect of becoming as dangerous as it was back in October 2023. Iran has suffered defeat after defeat since its leaders set in motion a multifront war against the Jewish state. Israel's 12-day campaign against Iran in June - which the U.S. eventually joined - did enormous damage to its military, in addition to significantly setting back its nuclear program. The assumption that it is a threshold nuclear power no longer holds true. Iran's Hizbullah auxiliaries in Lebanon suffered a humiliating and catastrophic defeat as a result of Israel's 2024 campaign, which also led to the collapse of the Bashar Assad regime in Syria. The hopes of hegemony over the Middle East that the Tehran government dreamed of are gone. So, too, is the land bridge to the Mediterranean composed of its allies in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon - with which they sought to encircle Israel. Countless generations of Jews who endured persecution, hardships and even attempts at their genocide have only dreamed of a situation as positive for Jewish life as the one that exists today despite all the sorrow that contemporary Jewry has endured since Oct. 7. This should encourage us to have faith that Israel and the Jewish people will continue to live and thrive. That will require the continued heroism of the Israeli people, bolstered by diaspora Jewry, to have the courage to stand up for their rights and bear witness against hatred and bigotry, wherever it is to be found.