US pressures Israel to delay retaliation amid Iran deal negotiations, revealing geopolitical bargaining over regional stability
Original framing: “White House pushing diplomacy over escalation, Axios reports” — Middle East Eye
The pattern of US-Israel-Iran tensions follows a century-old script: the 1953 coup against Mossadegh, the 1979 hostage crisis, the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), and the 2015 nuclear deal all show how external powers manipulate regional actors to serve their own interests. The current moment echoes the 1991 Gulf War, where the US used Israel as a pawn to rally Arab states against Iraq, only to later abandon them.
This episode is not merely about diplomacy vs.
escalation but reveals a deeper systemic struggle: the US and Israel are locked in a bargaining dance where each side seeks to control the narrative while avoiding direct confrontation, yet both are trapped by their own militarized logics. The historical parallels are stark—every 'diplomatic breakthrough' in the last 50 years has been followed by renewed conflict, suggesting that the problem is not a lack of deals but a lack of structural change. Indigenous and cross-cultural traditions offer alternative frameworks (e.g., *sulh*, Ubuntu) that prioritize communal harmony over state interests, but these are sidelined in favor of Realpolitik. Meanwhile, marginalized voices—Iranian women, Palestinian citizens of Israel, and Mizrahi Jews—are erased from the conversation, despite their lived experiences offering the most nuanced insights into de-escalation. The solution lies not in more negotiations but in dismantling the zero-sum game entirely, replacing it with a regional security architecture that addresses historical grievances and economic interdependence. Without this, the cycle of retaliation will continue, with civilians on all sides paying the price.