Yonah Jeremy Bob
Jerusalem Post, June 24, 2024
“Rogue or not, Brown said what many American officials are authentically feeling and thinking right now, and that is why there will be no retraction.”
It should be said from the outset that US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General CQ Brown has been a friend of Israel over the last nine months.
Certainly, until May, the US provided an incredible amount of weaponry and military support, and there is no indication that Brown was a major factor for the recent switch in the Biden administration (which is not monolithic) to freezing one of the weapons shipments. It has since promised it would unfreeze.
This all makes his public statement on Monday shocking in that it appeared to pull the rug out from any viable military threat against Hezbollah. Some had misquoted Brown as saying that the US would refuse to give Israel backing against Hezbollah should there be a larger war – but he did not go that far. Rather, he essentially said that America’s capabilities would be insufficient to provide Israel with the same umbrella that it did against Iran’s attack in April. This statement is not one about intentionality, but simply publicly admitting a lack of capabilities.
What is bizarre is not that it was said, but that it was made public and not provided as a warning in private. … [To read the full article, click here]