Madmen Trump and Netanyahu set the Middle East on fire

In the early hours of Sunday, America’s madman-in-chief Donald Trump and his foreign policy handler Benjamin Netanyahu launched an unprovoked war on Iran, setting the entire Middle East ablaze in a strategic gamble that is both criminal and potentially self-defeating.

At first, the opening salvo, aimed at decapitating the regime in Tehran, appeared to have failed, with the top leaders of the Islamic Republic said initially to be alive and unharmed.

Later on, however, the decapitation was confirmed as successful, with the top leader of the regime, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed in a strike on his compound.

While Trump donned a USA baseball cap in his declaration of war, Netanyahu vowed in a speech infused with biblical verses to pursue regime change in Iran, warning the war could cost American and Israeli lives. In other words, this points to a relentless, all-in war, one far closer in scale to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 than to any limited or symbolic strike.

This escalation comes after weeks of diplomatic talks that, while slow, had been making incremental progress, raising the inevitable question of whether war was the intention all along.

It also comes barely a year after the 12-day war with Iran in 2025, which Trump repeatedly claimed as a decisive success. If that campaign achieved its stated objectives, the question now then is why return to war at all?

Iran has responded by striking targets across the region, including in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain, and reportedly in Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

The Iranian objective is clear: to raise the cost for the US and its allies of continuing this campaign, and to pressure regional actors to dissuade Trump from pursuing his regime-change project to the bitter end.

Trump, a self-styled peace president who had campaigned for years against further military entanglements in the Middle East, has proven himself every bit as warmongering as the worst of the neoconservatives. While he and Netanyahu speak of helping the Iranian people overthrow their “tyrannical” rulers, using the language of colonial hubris that has learned nothing from history, US and Israeli strikes have hit civilian sites, with dozens said to have been killed at an Iranian school on Saturday.

Netanyahu, for his part, has recycled the familiar rhetoric of the US, Israel and the so-called “free world” joining forces to defeat terror. Yet the domestic fronts in the United States and Israel are deeply divided over this war, and over the fate of the regime in Tehran. There is no clear popular mandate in any of these three countries for foreign-imposed regime change.

This war also reinforces a growing suspicion, including within segments of Trump’s own MAGA base, that he is waging conflict on Israel’s behalf without a clearly defined American strategic interest. Far from strengthening Washington’s position, such a war risks draining US military resources, undermining its ability to confront peer competitors, and further destabilising its already fragile standing in the Middle East.

What exists instead is uncertainty and the real prospect of a protracted, deadly conflict that could drag on for years rather than the days or weeks imagined in the fantasies of Trump and Netanyahu.

It is also legitimate to ask whether this war serves domestic political purposes. With both men facing mounting crises and scandals at home, the temptation to escalate abroad cannot be dismissed. For leaders who routinely conflate national interest with personal survival, the distinction between the two is often blurred.

We are still in the opening hours of this onslaught and its repercussions. But one fact is already evident: two Western leaders have launched yet another war on a Muslim country on dubious grounds, once again setting the region alight. And the worst may still lie ahead.

The article has been updated to reflect the updated regarding the death of Ali Khamenei.

The New Arab Editorial represents the collective voice of The New Arab’s editorial team, presenting views that promote authentic discourses on the MENA region and beyond. 

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