U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from Syria was an undesirable development for the “Neocons,” who want a “perpetual war”, for the “global American interventionists” and of course for Israel. This decision also harmed the relationship between Trump and the Republicans in the Senate. In short, both the Republicans and the Democrats in the Senate were greatly perturbed by this decision and by the resignation of Secretary of Defense James Mattis. This means that Trump is now facing a two-party opposition as a result of his Syria decision.
It has been speculated that, after Syria, Trump is going to withdraw from Afghanistan too, and as a first step he will decrease the size of the army in the country from 14,000 troops to 7,000. It has been revealed to the media that as a part of the plan, the U.S.’s special representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad was holding negotiations with “Taliban” authorities. We should state that Trump’s instinct to withdraw from Afghanistan is being seen as “destructive” and “dangerous” by Congress and Pentagon, as well as the elites of the foreign policy settled in Washington. There are signs that Trump, who even sparked reactions from the Republicans, isn’t going to be in any rush for this. Spokesmen of the National Security Council Garett Marquis and Commander of the U.S. forces in Afghanistan General Scott Miller declared in their press statement that Trump has not yet given any order to Pentagon to withdraw from Afghanistan. If we take these statements into consideration, we can say that Trump hasn’t made his decision about Afghanistan yet.
The withdrawal of U.S. soldiers from Syria, on the other hand, worries Israel the most. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israel Lobby and Christian-Zionists are still making attempts to persuade Trump to take a step back. Netanyahu is going to meet U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo next week in Brazil. Secretary of Defense James Mattis was planning to visit Israel, but this visit was canceled due to his resignation. To clear the problems regarding the Syria issue between Israel and the White House, it is expected that Trump’s National Security Advisor John Bolton will visit Israel instead of Mattis. It is a known fact that Bolton is against the U.S.’s withdrawal from Syria. In his speech at the UN General Assembly in September, Bolton said that as long as Iran’s forces are in Syria, U.S. soldiers are not going anywhere. Bolton is known for his personality which equates Israel’s national interests with those of the U.S.
Christian Zionists, with the help of the Netanyahu wing of the “Israel Lobby”, are trying to impose upon the U.S. the decision to recognize that Golan Heights and the West Bank, which are under Israeli occupation, belong to Israel. This coalition of evil, which supports the PKK/PYD/YPG, is trying to break Turkey’s influence in the region on the one hand, and on the other is harassing Trump not to withdraw U.S. soldiers from Syria.
By the way, we should mention the problem related to F-16 fighter jets between Israel and the U.S. Israel made a deal with Croatia for the purchase of 12 F-16 fighter jets, which was made much more effective with some technical modifications, and these were in fact obtained from the U.S. The U.S., on the other hand, created difficulties for this sale. The Americans want Israel to bring the fighter jets back to their original condition. Croatia, in response, declared that in that case, they are going to cancel the 500 million dollars’ worth deal with Israel. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo whispered in Netanyahu’s ears that it was Secretary of Defense Mattis who created difficulties about the F-16 deal between Israel and Croatia. According to the information leaked to the press, Netanyahu asked Mattis in person for a favor regarding these difficulties, but he couldn’t get a positive answer. This conversation took place before Mattis’ resignation. Although Netanyahu also asked for help from Marilyn Hewson, the CEO of the producing company of the Lockheed Martin jets, he couldn’t get what he wanted. It was expected that the final decision about the deal for the 12 upgraded F-16 fighter jets would be made at the end of December. It is now being considered that the deal has failed since there has been no progress made to this day.
