“His heritage will be defined by whether he wins decisively against Iran or not,” Brig. Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi, of the Israel Defense and Security Forum, told JNS.
The sweeping defeat of many Republican candidates in the U.S. midterm elections on Tuesday, including in states and seats that had been GOP strongholds for decades, could accelerate U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to renew strikes against Iran before Democrats take control of Congress in January, Israeli security and foreign-policy experts told JNS.
As election results came out, Trump stated that “I wasn’t on the ballot and if I was, we would have won in a landslide.” He also said that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who lost a governor’s mansion typically considered very safe for Republicans, had been a “RINO,” or Republican in name only, “in the last six months of his political life.” Trump’s endorsed candidate for Senate, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton, is thought to have underperformed to such an extent—losing by 12 points—that it cost Abbott the race.
On Wednesday, U.S. Vice President JD Vance said that a pollster, who is “one of the smartest people I know in politics,” told him that voters who abandoned the Republicans would return if the GOP focused on four main things: “end the war, focus on cost of living/inflation, put America first and change our relationship to Israel.”
Trump told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday night that “Iran was a piece of it,” but that he doesn’t regret going to war against the Islamic Republic. “I did the right thing,” he told the paper. “I would have done it again.”
Brig. Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi, founder and chairman of the Israel Defense and Security Forum, told JNS that the midterm election results “might accelerate Trump’s decision to act against Iran now and try to finish the job until January, before the new Congress will be in place.”
The results could have significant implications for Israeli national security, particularly given the congressional role in providing military assistance to the Jewish state throughout the war, according to Avivi.
“For Israel, the relationship with Congress and the Senate is very, very important, and they have taken very meaningful decisions during the war to assist Israel,” he told JNS. “We’ll have to see how this will look in this new reality.”
Avivi said that a decisive victory against Iran could also improve Republicans’ prospects in the 2028 presidential election, particularly if Trump succeeds in “bringing down the Iranian regime and dismantling the Shia axis.”
“It would be wise to continue until there is a clear victory, because if President Trump stops now and loses the war, that would be even worse,” Avivi told JNS. “I think he’s thinking about his heritage, and his heritage will be defined by whether he wins decisively against Iran or not.” (Read More)
