The White House has repeatedly sounded a simple but effective message: Trust the plan. The slogan — with ostensible origins in the QAnon conspiracy theory movement — has been applied to a range of issues. In January, the Labor Department posted a photo of US President Donald Trump saluting, with the caption Trust the Plan. Trust Trump. After prominent antisemitic podcaster Tucker Carlson visited the Oval Office in January, a White House official told Jewish activist Shabbos Kestenbaum, “Just trust the plan.”
It was also the approach that Israelis took toward the president on most issues. Trump and his advisers — especially top envoy Steve Witkoff — might occasionally have said things that confused Israel and even undermined its interests, but they trusted that he was a president who could distinguish good from evil, and was not about to be pushed around by Iran and friends.
Trump’s decision to unleash an all-out bombing campaign against Iran alongside Israel seemed to confirm the wisdom of putting trust in the US leader. Sure, Trump might have engaged in direct talks with Iran, but, they reasoned, he saw right through their attempts to prevaricate and delay and embarked on a war that could damage him politically because he knew it was right. Trust the Plan.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu certainly acts like he fully trusts Trump. In a press conference last week, he lauded “the wisdom and the courage of President Trump’s decision, and his leadership, and the fact that we’re working together.”“America is not fighting for Israel. America is fighting with Israel for a common goal: to protect our future, to protect civilization against these barbarians,” Netanyahu said. They might not be fighting together for long. (Read More)
