Ross Douthat

If that's the list of demands, then he's looking for a deal.

But again, you just said that you don't think that's a good deal.

Israel doesn't think that's a good deal, right?

Israel has more maximalist war aims, which is why its actions are geared more towards regime change, right?

Is Israel a pit bull on a leash?

Like, is Israel actually on the American leash?

Is it just the case that if the U.S.

says,

We're done fighting Iran.

And then, you know, some future president, Gavin Newsom, sort of becomes even more conciliatory towards Iran that Israel just accepts that.

Do you think Israel just takes it for granted that this will be the last pro-Israel president that the United States is likely to have?

Do you think there's any risk of this being essentially a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy?

Because again, it just seems to me that the world we were in a few months ago was a world where Israel had achieved a lot of political and military objectives

at some real cost in terms of public opinion in the United States, especially around the Gaza War.

And what's happening now is a much bigger gamble.

And if it's perceived in the United States as essentially a failed war, and I think that could happen under conditions where

trump cuts bait and makes a deal could also happen i think under the scenarios that you're outlining of a longer a longer commitment with sort of substantial economic pain

In both of those scenarios, it seems to me, and I am a political analyst of some kind, right?

It seems to me that there's a world where Israel is already more unpopular than it's been at any point in my lifetime in the United States, or certainly my adult lifetime.

I think it's very easy to see a world where the fruits of this war are a profound American alienation from Israel, and maybe it's the end of the alliance.