By Matt Wolfson
Banner headline events almost always flow from quieter real-life causes, and the worst attack on Israel in fifty years is not an exception. The coordinated raids and massacres on October 7 were possible only because of more subtle interventions over two and a half years in rooms at the State Department and the White House, with indirect help from nonprofits like the Soros-funded International Crisis Group. These interventions were driven by a small network of government and interest group insiders whose actions have gone unreported in establishment media. Though their further consequences aren’t yet clear, they’ll almost certainly involve a push to weaken both Israel and an Israeli government resistant to accords with Iran.
The interventions flowed from one motivation: the State Department’s determination to achieve a “reset” with Iran, restoring the consensus reached at the end of the Obama Administration through its 2015 nuclear deal. This was the main priority of high-level department staff, including Robert Malley, whose family history as well as his work at the International Crisis Group align him with pro-Iranian movers, and the recently-retired Wendy R. Sherman, whose legacy is the 2015 deal. These players, along with National Security staffer Brett McGurk, had been crucial in pushing the Obama-backed alignment with Iran. In the Biden Administration, working under Secretary of State Antony Blinken, they have had a supportive superior: a low-key gladhanderwho has made his career supporting whatever establishment foreign agenda is teed up for action. In this case, that foreign agenda, perhaps at the urging of ex-president Obama, has been bringing Iran back to the negotiating table by reducing Israel’s power in the region while sidelining Netanyahu, an ardent opponent of negotiations.
From Washington, these players have run a concerted effort in that direction. Peace negotiations or conversations with Iran continued consistently even as more evidence surfaced of Iranian aggression. Malley used his influence to help install a likely Iranian operative first at the State Department and then at the Pentagon — part of a larger infiltration of agents, several of whom have links to the International Crisis Group. Antony Blinken announced the American-pushed ceding by Israel of miles of potentially resource-heavy land to Lebanon, much of which is controlled by Hezb’allah, a proxy for Iran. And, in the face of August videos of Hezb’allah-trained fighters engaged in war games training, U.S. officials urged Israelis to “de-escalate” and discuss “border demarcation.”
…Finally, there was the push in Israel proper against Netanyahu, ostensibly meant to stop Netanyahu’s coalition from limiting the discretionary powers of Israel’s Supreme Court, which even non-supportive observers think is merited after the Court’s 30-year aggrandizement of power. In practice, it meant Blinken and Biden directing heavy public criticism at Netanyahu’s government and using American funds to support protests which paralyzed the country, drawing members of its security services into politics even as they vouched for the fact that Israel’s border with Gaza was secure.