Anti-Trump sentiments pushes anti-Bibi (- on Face the Nation today)

[Thethingsz]

Per his explanation, anyoe who is with Trump loses among Dems.

is this TDS?

Transcript: Amos Hochstein on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan

MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you, as a Democrat, there was this extraordinary vote this past week in the Senate. Forty Senate Democrats tried to block a U.S. weapons sale to Israel, and that adds to this growing rift we have seen between your party and Benjamin Netanyahu. Do you think Democrats are going to come to regret this break in the alliance?

HOCHSTEIN: So I hope that it's not a break in the alliance. I think this, what it really demonstrates is for the last several years, Prime Minister Netanyahu has sacrificed Israel's interest in the United States. The most important asset the Israel has is not its military or its intelligence. It's the relation, it's the special relationship with the United States that has been bipartisan for so many decades. He has destroyed that because he has decided to become not just part of the Republican Party, but he's decided to become just an appendage of Donald Trump. And so every Democrat now sees, if you want to be Trump, great, if we're anti-Trump, then by de facto, we are against you. I think this is a lot to do with Bibi Netanyahu and his extremist right-wing government, and not to do with Israel. Look, you have half of Israel is voting against Bibi. So I think this- Democrats should be aligning with Israel, not with Bibi.

 

[MisterBeale]

Biden energy adviser says "Iranians have a card they never had" with Strait closure​

10 hours ago
Amos Hochstein, a Biden administration senior energy adviser, Middle East negotiator and current managing partner at the investment firm TWG Global, told "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" that "Iranians have a card they never had" in the war by closing the Strait of Hormuz.

 

[Thethingsz]

Biden energy adviser says "Iranians have a card they never had" with Strait closure​

Iran has been threatening to shut down the Strait of Hormuz for decades.

 

[MisterBeale]

Iran has been threatening to shut down the Strait of Hormuz for decades.

Yup. Everyone in D.C. knew what Iran would do if they were seriously attacked.

. . . well, except apparently Trump.

 

[Thethingsz]

Yup. Everyone in D.C. knew what Iran would do if they were seriously attacked.

. . . well, except apparently Trump.

First threats, 1980/1987

Iran Threatens Us. Allies With Oil Cutoff Forever
The Evening Independent Apr 22, 1980. By Associated Press.

Bangor Daily News · ‎Jun 11, 1987.
Iran threatens to turn Gulf into graveyard. NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Iran intensified its verbal attacks against the United States Wednesday by threatening to turn the Persian Gulf into a "graveyard" if America intervenes..

Iran does not have any "land disputes" with Israel. It has seen Israel as an extension of the "Great Satan" its reference to US.
It began setting up Hezbollah before Israel's invasion following Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians.


____


Under Bush:


Tehran’s trump card
By Clifford Kupchan
April 23, 2006.

CLIFFORD KUPCHAN is a director at Eurasia Group, a political risk consulting firm.

IRAN’S KEY ALLY in the current nuclear crisis is not Russia or China. It’s oil. Tehran can easily drive up prices and is already beginning to do so to rattle the West. As the crisis escalates, Washington’s diplomatic partners will become gravely worried about their energy supplies. In the end, Iran’s petro power will probably trump Western diplomacy.

Just look at what’s happening: Tehran’s bravado announcement April 11 that it had mastered key nuclear technology drew censure from world capitals. But it also drove oil prices to more than $70 a barrel on fears that increasing tensions or future military strikes might disrupt Iranian exports and damage Western economies. Prices have risen more than $8 a barrel in less than three weeks, primarily because of Iran.

https://web.archive.org/web/20190916212021/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-apr-23-op-kupchan23-story.html

____


Obama's Era

Arafat, Alaa Al-Din. Regional and International Powers in the Gulf Security

unlike other major chokepoints, closure of the Strait of Hormuz would shut in much of the oil flowing through it, due to a lack of sufficient alternative pipeline routes to get oil to market.
In fact, Iran threatens several times to block the Strait. Iran has military capabilities to close the Strait.
In his testimony before the House Armed Services Committee on February 27, 2018, CENTCOM Commander General Joseph Vote states that,
"[W]ith little warning, Iran could quickly close the Strait of Hormuz using stockpiles of naval mines and disrupt key maritime chokepoints throughout the region."
The closure of the Strait would be catastrophic. Some energy analysts predict the price of oil could rise by as much as 50% within days of the Strait's closure.1° Piracy, on the other hand, threatens the flow of oil and freedom of navigation and threatens the security of GCC oil tankers transiting through the Western Indian Ocean, Gulf of Aden, Bab el-Mandeb, the Arabian Sea, and they sometimes strayed as far as the Strait of Hormuz.
[...]
Despite Iranian repeatedly threatens to violate the freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf and strait of Hurmuz, the United States repeatedly guarantees to protect the freedom of navigation.

In fact, for more than five decades, the United States is the major protector of the Gulf maritime security. Besides, maintaining the unhindered flow of oil is one of the US strategic national security interests in the Persian Gulf.

The fact that the United States does not import most of its oil from the Persian Gulf or it has energy independence is irrelevant in this respect's Thus, the United States will remain the main protector of free flow of trade in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.

For instance, in 2012, President Obama reportedly sent a private letter to Tehran declaring Iranian closure of the Strait of Hormuz a "red line" for the United States.

The ongoing US naval presence in the region should afford Washington continued deterrence opportunities.

The second strategic objective is to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear capabilities and to contain Iran regional influence in order to preserve the regional balance of power, prevent any other power hostile to the United States from the political and military domination of the region, maintain the stability and independence of the Persian Gulf countries. George W. Bush labeled Iran as part of the "axis of evil," or states who were threatening the peace of the world and developing Weapon of Mass Destruction...
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