Patricia Hynes’ and Anna Gyorgy’s April 1 My Turn on the war in Iran expresses righteous outrage at the unnecessary “war of choice” in Iran. I certainly support this outrage and condemn its perpetrators, but I am struck by their focus on Israel as the main proponent of this war, as well as their claims that “you will not read or hear this brutally honest coverage in any weak-kneed mainstream media or discourse.” They focus their outrage on what they call the war for a “greater Israel” stating that this is part of Israel’s push to expand their territory. It is true that there is a faction of the Zionist movement (of which Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is probably a part) that endorses the idea of an Israel which expands to biblical borders from the “Nile to the Euphrates.” In fact Mike Huckabee, our ambassador to Israel, a right wing evangelical Christian, endorses this view. It is, however, not the official policy of the Israeli government or necessarily endorsed by the Israeli people who are increasingly more vocal about their dissent and disagreement with Netanyahu and his government.
Further, Hynes and Gyorgy quote the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem (in God’s image) as using the phrase “the greater Israel” to describe Israel’s current military aggressions. In fact this phrase is not used on their website nor is it referenced in their descriptions of the human right abuses they speak out against. The fact of Israel’s horrendous human rights abuses does not, in my view, warrant the use of a term which implies that it is Israeli policy or mainstream Zionist belief that Israel has a right to expand its borders. My question here is why have Hynes and Gyorgy confined their condemnation of the war to a focus on extremist factions in Israel with a perfunctory mention of the U.S. role in the war and no mention at all of other players in Middle East politics who have had a significant role in starting this conflict.
For example, the noted historian Heather Cox Richardson, reported extensively on the role of the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia’s role in promoting the war with Iran. She states in her March 26, 2026 Letters from An American that “the United States has abandoned its role as the underwriter of globalization based on United Nations principles” and has instead aligned itself with oligarchs like Putin in Russia, Orban in Hungary and Mohamed bin Salem in Saudi Arabia. According to her, Donald Trump started the war in Iran not only at the urging of Israel’s Netanyahu but also at the request of Mohamed bin Salem of Saudi Arabia. Both countries see Iran as a threat to their power and want it weakened.
Journalists from the New York Times (weak-kneed mainstream media?) reported that Mohamed bin Salem saw this as an “historic opportunity” to redraw the boundaries in the Middle East and urged Trump to seize control of Iran’s infrastructure and energy resources. Further, according to Richardson, “Judd Legum of Popular Information notes that the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) controlled by MBS invested $2 billion in the private equity firm of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, one of Trump’s volunteer Iran negotiators, before the war. A report by Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee and House Oversight Committee released on March 19 says that “since 2021, Mr. Kushner has collected more than $110 million from the government of Saudi Arabia for investment management services that have reaped little to no return.”
The fact that there are many very rich and powerful people benefiting from this war at the expense of the citizens of Iran, others in the Middle East, the United States, Israel and many other countries should not come as a surprise to anyone who has been following the politics of our current administration or those of other countries around the world. The oligarchs that Trump has aligned himself with would like nothing better than to see their citizens sick, stupid and poor so that they can be more easily led into blaming themselves and each other for their misery instead of seeing clearly the powerful forces of authoritarianism and oligarchy that are attempting to wrest control from the hands of majority. Can we not focus our joint efforts on targeting these terrifying behaviors everywhere instead of singling out Israel and implying that it is a worse perpetrator of these ills than perhaps even our own country?
Diane Kurinsky lives in Wendell.