What’s the mood in Israel after US Vice-President JD Vance’s public tongue lashing of the Jewish state? What do they feel about the war that Trump just ended?
“I think Israelis are yet to come to terms with the with the situation, but they are a very candid people. So they didn’t stop publicly talking against the deal. Some of the cabinet ministers of Netanyahu have spoken,” Khinvraj Jangid told StratNewsGlobal on The Gist programme from Tel Aviv.
As head of the Department of Israel Studies at Jindal Global University near Delhi, Prof Jangid from his close study of the US-Israel relationship, does not believe Vance’s tongue lashing was unprecedented.
“America and Israel do have an exceptional relationship. It’s truly exceptional in the amount of confidence, the intimate, multi-dimensional nature of ties. So they often speak at each other, of each other, candidly.”
Also weighing in from his perch in Zurich was strategic affairs scholar and commentator Prem Mahadevan.
“If you look at most of the commentary that’s coming out in Europe, it is clearly that the US has been bested, as in Iran has got the upper hand,” he said, adding that “some months ago, I had written that one of the factors which is working in Iran’s favor, despite the fact that in Europe, Iran is not very popular, is that Trump is even more unpopular. So if the if this doesn’t go well for the US, there will be no shortage of people, you know, pointing a finger at the US and saying, we told you so or this was bound to happen.”
He underscored the military asymmetry between Iran and the US: the former’s defense budget is a fraction of the US and if you take the US and Israel combined, I mean, there was no contest yet Iran managed to, you know, at great cost, but it still managed to come out of this conflict very much in a superior position compared to what was anticipated.”
Tune in for more in this dialogue with Prof Khinvraj Jangid of Jindal Global University and Prem Mahadevan, scholar and commentator in Zurich, Switzerland.
