Half truths and omissions of American pundits

“Omission is the most powerful form of lie”

(George Orwell)

Who is most responsible for Iran conflict? If you were to follow Historian Timothy Snyder, the ONLY person responsible is Donald Trump. You can read Snyder’s articles on his Substack in which he analyzes Trump’s attack on Iran. But take note. In all these articles, Israel doesn’t come to mention once. Not once. It’s true that Donald Trump is an unstable imbecilic clown who has made a mess of the situation but the person who started the Iran conflict is NOT Donald Trump. The conflict is started by Israel and it has goaded America into the war. The man most responsible for starting Iran conflict is Bibi Netanyahu. Donald Trump is secondary.

Donald Trump doesn’t have any ideology or strategy or any planning or a specific policy towards anything. He’s an imbecile who functions mainly on two foundations. First is his irresistible whims, petty but visceral vindictiveness and delusional beliefs. Second is the manipulators around him who exploit these pathological tendencies of his. Much of his whims & delusional beliefs are born out of his personal vendettas like his revulsion for wind mills. The background of it is his personal grievance with Scottish government over wind farm near his golf course. Similarly his whims about Nobel peace prize which he feels is unfairly denied to him (if Obama got it, why not him?). There are many such personal grievances of Trump which shapes his delusions.

There are variety of manipulators around Trump who exploit his pathological tendencies. There are oligarchs like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. There are proto-fascists like Stephen Miller & Steve Bannon. There are idiots like Howard Lutnick and Peter Navarro - the trade & tariffs advisers. Trump himself has zero intellect or knowledge about anything. Trump cannot do complicated things let alone plan for foreign wars. On middle east policy, the Israelis are the biggest manipulators of Trump. This is not just case with Trump. Israelis & Zionists always had a strong influence over US middle east policy, they finance politicians across political parties, they manipulate Trump just like they manipulated Biden before him.

Current Iran war cannot be explained without including the role of Israel which I believe is a major one. You also have to understand broader picture of middle east. The Iran conflict is part of the chain which began with Israel starting Genocide in Gaza in 2023, attacks in Lebanon in 2024, US overthrowing Assad in Syria and finally attack on Iran. These events started when Biden was in White House. The events after Trump took over White House continued along their previous trajectory where Iran is the last domino. Let’s pause again and go back to Timothy Snyder.

Timothy Snyder poses himself as a great humanitarian and condemns Russia’s Genocide of Ukrainians. But Snyder has never uttered a word about Genocide in Gaza. Take note that Snyder is a Historian and hence bound by certain professional principles. A historian must document events with impartiality as a neutral observer. He cannot OMIT events or document them with a personal bias. A historian keeping silence on Gaza genocide is not only morally wrong but also disqualifies him from professional integrity. Snyder’s analysis on Iran conflict without mentioning the critical role of Israel is again a betrayal to his professional integrity as a Historian.

The role of Israel in Iran conflict and broadly in middle east is central and events in middle east are impossible to comprehend without Israel’s policy in the region. It was on pressure of Israel that Trump in 2018 withdrew from Iran Nuclear deal - An international agreement which involved UN permanent superpowers and was reached after a decade of negotiations. American policy on middle east has long been ‘Israel first’. This remarkable fact is omitted by Snyder. An ordinary commentator can do as he pleases to omit or twist his analysis but not a professional historian.

The attack on Iran started with Assassination of its top leadership and this by all accounts was carried out by Israel. US attack was focused on Iran’s military capabilities, Missile & drone facilities and other infrastructure. The most critical part of attack - the assassination of Iran’s head of the State (Supreme leader) - was carried out by Israel. Now you can make the case that Israel is a junior partner of US in attack on Iran although I claim that it has bigger role. Whether Israel has the bigger role or small role, you can’t just ignore the role of Israel in current middle east situation. Snyder has conveniently ignored it completely and very deliberately.

Israel’s policy is wicked and it’s in its nature since many decades. It now has embroiled America into catastrophic war in middle east, and then quietly receded in background. This was what Bibi always wanted. Get the war started and let America deal with it. War once started will become out of control and especially with bunglers & idiots in Trump regime (like Hegseth & Rubio), it would be impossible to dial down the conflict. And not to mention Trump’s own mental instability because of which it would be impossible for him to take any meaningful decision. Israel understood all this dynamics and precisely for this reason it goaded American buffoons into this catastrophic blunder. Even if by some remote chance, there’s a possibility to wind down the conflict, Israel will always sabotage it by breaking the ceasefire and assassinating Iranian leaders.

Not just American pundits like Timothy Snyder & others, but American media also has long been misinforming the public. While people blame Trump regime for energy price shocks & rising Gas prices, media doesn’t educate people that Israel shares equal blame in creating these shocks in middle east. Much of the media in America is also pro-Israel and connected to lobbies like AIPAC. American media is thoroughly corrupted and has been misinforming people since decades. American pundits are also intellectually bankrupt and/or intellectually dishonest who have misinformed American people since many decades. Israel is ruled by fanatics and malevolent political class just like Trump regime but America media has always portrayed Israeli regime as the poor ‘victims’.

Timothy Snyder who criticizes the inhumanity of Putin regime is completely silent on inhumanity and genocidal war crimes of Israeli regime. You can check his numerous articles & interviews. He has never uttered one sentence on Israeli war crimes. Genocide in Gaza was a historical event and if a historian is completely silent on such critical event, it exposes his intellectual dishonesty and moral decadence.

Trump is an imbecile but even still he has some sense of self preservation. His problem is his instability which deters him to self preserve. The war in Iran is highly unpopular as Americans face its immediate impact on gas prices. Then there’s Congressional elections coming in next 6 months which, given the unpopularity of Trump, will flip at least one house of Congress. And if the war goes really bad, it may even flip the Senate. This will bring Trump closer to another impeachment. The bunglers in White House are trying to make a deal with Iran so as to put an end to this deeply unpopular war. But they can’t, precisely because they’re bunglers and additionally Israel will sabotage their efforts by breaking ceasefire or some other provocation. Trump regime is thus in precarious jam.

Israelis don’t care about Trump just like they never cared for Biden. They used Biden like a tissue paper and disposed him off. While there were several reasons for Democratic Party’s loss in 2024 elections, the loss in State like Michigan (with sizable Arab-American voters) was due to Biden’s support to Israel and enabling Genocide in Gaza. Israel’s role in always cynical. It blatantly meddles in American politics to the point of destroying political careers of American politicians and dragging US military into war.

Note that while Timothy Snyder has much criticism about Russian meddling in US politics, Snyder has never uttered a word about blatant Israeli meddling in US politics which is on a lot bigger scale and which has undermined American interests since many decades. It’s astonishing that Snyder has never criticized AIPAC’s influence in American political affairs. Why? Snyder who poses as defender of Democracy however has maintained a wicked silence on subversion of American democracy by Israelis.

Why Snyder is mute about Israeli meddling in American politics?

Given such great omissions by Timothy Snyder and his betrayal to his profession of History, I am forced to make conclusions. Is he intellectually dishonest? For sure. I can go further. Is Snyder a closet Zionist? Probably. Make your own conclusion.

Substack vs Legacy media

The legacy news media - the mainstream news - has lost its value and credibility. Media enterprises are just tentacles of oligarchs and they don’t provide actual stories and insight. Substack was supposedly a platform where former journalists, editors & pundits (along with many ordinary people) created a haven to disseminate ideas and analysis. In legacy media, journalists could only present their stories with certain perspective that was dictated by their bosses. And certain stories & analysis could not be presented at all if it didn’t fit into narrative of legacy media. Such was the state of media and it’s getting worse every day.

On Substack, there are no boundaries for writers. They can write from their heart & mind on subjects without any censors. Take example of me. I would never get a job with any legacy media in my country (India). On Substack, I can write freely. But American pundits still don’t write freely. What’s stopping Timothy Snyder from writing about Gaza Genocide and Israel’s blatant interference in American politics?

I give you another example. Economist Paul Krugman is among the top Substackers and has recently written numerous articles on Iran conflict & its economic consequences. Yet, not in a single article he has mentioned the role of Israel in starting this conflict. How can you comprehend Iran conflict without including the single biggest actor - Israel - into the picture? Krugman also levels a lot of resentment against Iran war on idiocy of Trump regime but at least half of this resentment should be leveled against Israelis. On that Krugman is mute.

What forces gag American pundits on Substack and why they stay silent on certain issues? I don’t know.