For several hours, US domestic politics has been shaken by two different statements with the same content. Both Speaker Mike Johnson and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that “Israel had decided to attack Iran, and it was inevitable that Iran would target the United States in its retaliatory strikes. Therefore, we had to strike first.” These statements ignited public protests that “Israel made the US decision to go to war.”
Even more interesting is that in the 12-day war that took place in June 2025, since Israel carried out the initial attack alone, Iran did not target US bases in its retaliatory strikes. Iran only launched pre-informed, symbolic retaliatory strikes on the American base in Qatar after US B-2 bombers struck nuclear facilities. In this regard, the claims of Rubio and Johnson are questionable. Most likely, there are other reasons behind Trump’s involvement in the current war. In any case, it is clear that Trump is conveying the message that “the war was Israel’s will” through his inner circle.
Of course, these statements have a serious negative impact on Trump’s reputation. Because the public is led to believe that he cannot say “no” to Israel and that he is acting at Netanyahu’s behest.
In the short term, the biggest winner of these geopolitical processes is Netanyahu. The Israeli Prime Minister has been able to achieve the goal that his country has been aiming for for more than 30 years: to involve the United States in a war with Iran, which is considered an existential threat to Israel. However, Netanyahu also has a more important personal motive in this war. Elections will be held in Israel in the fall of this year. It is clear that Netanyahu wants to go to the elections with a complete victory in the fight against Iran and the “resistance