Did The U.S. Just Rope-A-Dope Iran For Israel's Strike?

Also, is Rubio's stock now higher than J.D.'s?

WSJ:

U.S. negotiations with Iran aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear program were widely seen as an important way to preserve regional peace. They ended up being the perfect cover for a surprise Israeli attack.

With a sixth round of talks between Trump administration envoy Steve Witkoff and his Iranian counterparts set for Sunday in Oman, Israeli and U.S. officials warned of military action if Iran didn’t agree to end its production of fissile material that can be used in nuclear weapons.

Instead, Israel hit first, achieving tactical surprise through a devastating series of blows that killed three top Iranian generals and key nuclear scientists and hit sites linked to the country’s nuclear programs.

On Friday morning, President Trump, in a social-media post, wrote, “I gave Iran a chance to make a deal” but “they just couldn’t get it done.” He said the Israeli strikes were carried out because of Tehran’s intransigence and urged the Iranians to reach a deal “before there is nothing left.”

For months, Trump had regularly signaled his desire to give diplomacy a chance to succeed before any turn to military force, and Sunday’s planned meeting in Muscat was to be another step on a high-stakes journey.

Iran had been expected to respond then to a Witkoff proposal for a framework to resolve the standoff over Tehran’s nuclear efforts. The two sides were at loggerheads—the U.S. insisted that Iran would eventually have to stop enriching uranium, which Tehran refused to do. But even amid signals that an Israeli strike was growing more likely, the expectation was that talks would continue.

On Thursday, Trump said he didn’t think an Israeli attack was imminent, “but it is something that could very well happen.” He also said Washington and Tehran were “fairly close to a pretty good agreement” but that Iran would need to make further compromises to avoid conflict.

Hours later, Israel launched hundreds of warplanes in several waves to hit targets across Iran.

“There is no question that the Witkoff mission was a major contributor to the surprise,” said Dennis Ross, who served as a senior official on Middle East issues during Democratic and Republican administrations. “The Iranians would have assumed that Israel would not attack while the talks were under way and a meeting was about to take place.”

Daniel DePetris in Spectator:

President Trump was matter-of-fact when he was asked about the likelihood of an Israeli military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. “I don’t want to say imminent, but it looks like it’s something that could very well happen,” he told reporters Thursday afternoon.

It turns out that Trump was off-the-mark. Hours later, the Israelis conducted a major bombing campaign against dozens of Iranian targets purportedly linked to its nuclear, missile and military programs. Dubbed “Operation Rising Lion,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed the operation was geared to hit the heart of Tehran’s nuclear capability in order to protect Israel’s survival. “This operation will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat,” the Israeli premier said, adding that Natanz, Tehran’s largest uranium enrichment complex, was targeted as well. Several senior Iranian officials, including Gen. Hossein Salami, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, were reportedly eliminated, although given the fast-moving developments and multiple claims, it’s hard to determine anything with full accuracy.