Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) on Thursday seemed skeptical of an Israeli intelligence assessment that Iran was planning a new assassination attempt on President Donald Trump, suggesting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could benefit from the assessment the most.
Smith appeared on CNN’s “The Source” to discuss the Wall Street Journal report published Thursday. He acknowledged that Iran has previously vowed to exact revenge on Trump for ordering the 2020 killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, but recommended caution.
The congressman made his case after host Kaitlan Collins asked him about the report.
“Well, it’s very hard to tell,” said Smith. “I mean, certainly Iran has made the statement … since the killing of Soleimani — gosh, over six years ago now. It’s also easy to see that Israel would want to sort of buck up Trump, make him more willing to take on Iran more strongly.”
He noted, “Netanyahu has been pushing for that tougher stance, a more hawkish approach, to Iran for quite some time. Now, crucially, without any clear plan for how that’s going to turn into some sort of success, in terms of fundamentally breaking the Iranian regime.”
The Democratic lawmaker added, “But Israel certainly has that interest.”
Netanyahu has frequently shared his ambitions for a “Greater Israel” that would see his government lay claim to neighboring territories, describing his efforts last year as a “historic and spiritual mission” which would certainly be illegal by any metric of international law.
After Trump launched his war on Iran in February with joint U.S.-Israeli strikes, Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed that the U.S. attacked “preemptively” because the administration “knew” impending Israeli strikes on Iran would trigger “an attack against American forces.”
The war has already cost at least 13 U.S. military service members and more than 3,000 Iranians their lives and triggered renewed conflict between Israel and Lebanon. Trump has claimed, among his many reasons for starting the war, that Iran is building nuclear weapons.
Netanyahu himself has heeded as much on so many occasions over the past 30 years that “The Daily Show” cut together a montage of his warnings. Netanyahu was accused last year of war crimes by the International Criminal Court over the Israeli genocide in Palestine.
The Wall Street Journal report cited “people familiar with the matter” and arrived one day after Trump declared the U.S.-Iran ceasefire was “over” — thus abandoning a memorandum of understanding signed last month by both parties in a stated attempt to end hostilities.
“So, it’s hard to know, it’s hard to know exactly what that intel is,” said Smith. “I mean, the bigger problem as you’ve pointed out, the ceasefire has broken down. We don’t seem to have a plan, going forward, for how to achieve our objectives, or even to stop the conflict.”