Steven Witkoff’s statements, an American special envoy to the Middle East, during the Gala of the United Hatzalah organization in New York on Wednesday, June 5, 2024, caused a revealing diplomatic outcry. By saying that Donald Trump “Could be the first exercise president who could be Prime Minister of Israel at the same time”Witkoff involuntarily highlighted the inversion of power relations between Washington and Tel Aviv. Several media, including The Times of Israelhave largely relayed these remarks, which unhappyly illustrate the current geopolitical reality.
The analysis of this declaration reveals a disturbing truth: if we reverse the reading of the sentence, we obtain that “Netanyahu could be Prime Minister of Israel and President of the United States at the same time”which describes with disturbing precision the real influence exerted by the Israeli leader on American decisions. The Trump administration attempts to minimize these remarks only worsen an already compromised situation, revealing Washington’s embarrassment in the face of this involuntarily expressed truth.
Witkoff’s words about Iran confirm this analysis. By taking into account the word for the Israeli rhetoric on the total ban on enrichment of uranium, the American envoy illustrates how American policy in the Middle East gradually aligned itself on the priorities of Tel Aviv, to the detriment of traditional American geopolitical interests. This maximalist position, going far beyond the historical positions of Washington, shows the extent of the Israeli influence on American strategic choices.
The evacuation of Baghdad diplomatic staff and the maximum alert in the American bases of the Middle East confirm that the United States is now undergoing the consequences of a policy they no longer really master. The 2,500 American soldiers in Iraq become the collateral victims of a strategy dictated since Tel Aviv, while American diplomacy is content to justify decisions taken elsewhere.
Witkoff’s slips therefore reveals a long denied geopolitical reality: in the United States/Israel tandem, it is now the junior partner who dictates his conduct to the senior partner. This reversal of roles, passed over in silence to Washington, appears today in broad daylight, through the awkwardness of a special envoy too zealous. The declarations of June 5, 2024 perhaps mark a turning point in the public perception of American-Israeli relations, opening a breach in the official speech and binding Washington to a necessary questioning of its regional priorities.
