Former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy has argued that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made a deliberate strategic calculation: American power is in decline, and Israel must extract everything it can from Washington before the window closes. According to Levy, this logic - not security concerns - is the primary driver behind Israel's push to pull the United States into a direct war with Iran.

As reported by "Hvylya", Levy, president of the US/Middle East Project, outlined what he described as Netanyahu's multipolar gamble in an interview with the Clash Point program.

The reasoning Levy attributed to Netanyahu is blunt: "America is a waning power. We are moving into a multipolar reality. We are probably there already. Not much longer will America have this kind of freedom of action." The Israeli prime minister's conclusion, Levy argued, follows directly: "I'm going to get what I can, what I can squeeze out of the Americans right now."

The gamble carries a specific endgame. If the US can weaken Iran as a regional counterweight, Israel would be positioned to demand that other states in the region "bend the knee" and accept its dominance. "If that means that in a few years' time I don't have them, I've already done what I need - and then we will build this axis with other regional parties to control the region," Levy said, articulating what he sees as Netanyahu's internal logic.

Levy pointed to Marco Rubio's admission as the most revealing piece of evidence. The US Secretary of State openly stated that the "imminent threat" justifying American strikes was not an Iranian attack - but the certainty that Israel was going to attack Iran anyway, and that Iran would retaliate against US assets. "America basically said the Israeli military are about to do this, we will be hit, therefore we have to join them," Levy said. "In other words - who started this war? Who brought America in? Israel."

But the strategy may be self-defeating. Levy argued that Israel is "more reliant than ever on America at a time when Israel is more controversial than ever as a political issue in America." Initial polling on the war has been terrible for Trump. Even among evangelical voters and deep inside the MAGA base, voices are now asking whether Washington is pursuing "Israel first or America first." By accelerating American overextension, Levy suggested, Netanyahu may be hastening the very decline he is trying to exploit.

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