I sat down with Scott Horton, director of the Libertarian Institute, editorial director of antiwar.com, and host of the Scott Horton Show, for a conversation on the Iran war, Israeli influence over the Trump administration, and the future of Israel and Palestine. Horton has done more than 6,000 interviews on Middle East policy and U.S. foreign policy since 2003, and authored Provoked, Enough Already, and Fool’s Errand. He is one of the most consistent anti-war voices in American media.
“Just Quit and Leave”: Scott’s Iran War Solution
Horton’s position on the Iran war is straightforward. The United States should declare victory, give Trump a parade and a gold medal, and leave the region permanently. “The entire bluff of America’s military predominance in the Middle East has already been called as of six to eight weeks ago,” Horton said. “We’re living in the future now.”
In Horton’s analysis, Iran is now the dominant force in the region, in significant part because the George W. Bush administration installed an Iran-friendly government in Iraq in 2003. There is no military solution short of nuclear weapons that would reverse this, and the American public has no interest in continuing to die for dominance over the Persian Gulf. The political class refuses to acknowledge the setback, and that refusal is what keeps the United States stuck.
How Netanyahu Manipulates Trump
Asked about Netanyahu’s 60 Minutes appearance, where the Israeli prime minister told CBS the Iran war is not over, Horton offered a candid theory: Trump is being flattered into war.
“There’s a national intelligence estimate in Israel that just says flatter him,” Horton said. The pitch, he believes, runs something like this: forget being compared to Lincoln. If Trump finishes the Iran war for Israel, he will be compared not to Abraham Lincoln but to the biblical Abraham. He will be the leader who stopped the existential threat to the Jewish state. He will go down as a hero of all history.
Horton noted that Trump’s family has taken money from interests aligned with Israel, including significant donations from Miriam Adelson, and that those donations came “with certain assurances.” But blackmail or bribery, in Horton’s reading, may be less important than simple ego. Trump is uniquely susceptible to flattery, and Netanyahu knows it.
Where Is Israel Headed: Carpet-Bombing, Demographics, and Collapse
On Israel’s trajectory, Horton was sobering. He sees little chance of regime change in Iran from the Israeli side, but a real chance that Israel will, in coming years, escalate against the West Bank in ways comparable to what it has already done in Gaza. “I’m afraid they could just start carpet-bombing the West Bank,” he said, “and just be like, yeah dude, we said greater Israel, didn’t we. We told you Iran, didn’t we.”
The internal Israeli demographic picture is grim by Israeli design. Horton cited the work of Arnon Soffer, the Tel Aviv University demographer who advised Ariel Sharon on the 2005 Gaza disengagement. The disengagement was framed by some as a peace gesture. Soffer described it more bluntly as a way to ensure Israel’s Jewish demographic majority by removing 1.4 million Palestinians from the population count without granting them sovereignty.
What Americans Can Actually Do
I closed by asking Horton what ordinary Americans should do. His answer was civil disobedience, business boycotts, and personal refusal to participate.
“I’m for completely abandoning Israel 100 percent,” he said. “All aid, all military aid, all vetoes in the UN Security Council on their behalf, and all of that. I would never buy anything knowingly that came from Israel, no matter what.”
The boycott, in Horton’s view, is not only about depriving Israel of money. It is about starting conversations. Someone seeing you boycott Israel is forced to ask why, and that opens the door to actually explaining what is happening. “It’s a great conversation starter,” he said.
Horton’s work, including more than two decades of interviews on these issues, is available at scotthortonacademy.com.
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This video examines public reporting, documents, and allegations as reported by established outlets and primary sources. No claims are presented as fact beyond what is documented. This content is not intended to promote hate, misinformation, or harassment. Independent verification is encouraged.
