On June 22, 2025, President Donald Trump ordered the US Air Force deployed a group of B-2 bombers to drop multiple bunker-busting bombs on three nuclear facilities in Iran, the Fordow Uranium Enrichment Plant, the Natanz Nuclear Facility, and the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center.
The US attack, which is almost certainly a one-off, occurred nine days into the war between Israel and the Islamic Republic which has seen Israel’s Air Force (IAF) achieve air supremacy, allowing the military to strike hundreds of military targets, including IRGC leaders, nuclear facilities and nuclear scientists throughout Iran – over 1,000 sorties in which the IAF hasn’t yet lost a single plane.
However, that one American attack began to immediately be framed by some British media outlets as an example of the Israeli tail wagging the US dog, suggesting that the US president was coerced into making the decision by Israel’s prime minister. This framing, evoking antisemitic tropes about alleged Jewish and/or Israeli power and undue influence over the United States, has a long and toxic history. In recent decades, it’s been associated with the progressive left, but has also been embraced by some within the MAGA right.
Enter Edward Luce, the FT’s US Editor, and arguably the most openly anti-Israel contributor at the outlet…