The "Signal Chat" Demonstrates Israel's Special Treatment

by Jeff Steele — last modified Mar 28, 2025 11:34 AM

While cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump administration officials debated benefits of a U.S. attack on Yemen to Europe and Egypt, they ignored the greater benefit to Israel. While the other countries were expected to provide something in return, Israel was not.

Given that the administration of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump has decided that criticism of Israel is a deportable offense, I am going to use the privilege afforded to me by virtue of my being a U.S. citizen to criticize Israel every chance I get. While I would love to have a reason to do that today, my criticism is actually going to be of U.S. officials. But it involves Israel.

I wasn't going to write about the notorious "SignalGate" controversy in which top Trump administration officials engaged in discussion of top-secret military plans while including a journalist in on their discussion. There has been a lot written about that already, and I assumed that I could not add anything that hasn't already been brought up. But then I realized that was not true. One aspect, at least to my knowledge, that has not been addressed in detail is the role of Israel. As I wrote in an earlier blog post, the root cause of the U.S. attack on Yemen is Israel's actions with regard to Gaza. Had Trump not adopted former President Joe Biden's policy regarding Israel and Gaza, there would not be any Houthi missile attacks and no need for the U.S. to respond to those attacks. Yet this aspect of the conflict was completely ignored in the Signal chat.

First, some background. After Israel launched its genocidal war against Gaza, which of course followed the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel, the group Ansar Allah, commonly known as the Houthis, began launching attacks against any shipping with a connection to Israel that was within range of their missiles. This had the effect of significantly disrupting shipping traffic in the Red Sea. All along, Ansar Allah said that its attacks would end when the Israeli attacks against Gaza ended and, sure enough, when a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas prevailed, the Houthi attacks stopped. But then, on March 2, Israel announced a freeze on the entry of all humanitarian assistance, including food and medicine, into Gaza. Israel also cut off electricity to Gaza, forcing its desalination plants to close. In response to this forced starvation of Gazans, Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi gave the Israelis a four-day deadline in which to allow the resumption of aid. Needless to say, Israel missed the deadline. In response, Ansar Allah issued a statement announcing that its attacks would resume, saying:

"We hope it is understood that the actions taken by the [Houthi military] … stem from a deep sense of religious, humanitarian, and moral responsibility toward the oppressed Palestinian people and aim to pressure the Israeli usurper entity to reopen the crossings to the Gaza Strip and allow the entry of aid, including food and medical supplies"

Therefore, one way that the attacks on Red Sea shipping could be ended is by pressuring Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. Based on the Signal group chat transcript, this option was never considered.

One of the most remarkable revelations in the Signal chat is that the administration officials didn't really seem to understand the need for the attack on Yemen. Vice President J. D. Vance started off by saying, "I think we are making a mistake" and then discussed the small amount of U.S. trade that traverses the Red Sea versus the larger amount of European trade. Vance sees the attack as primarily serving Europe's interests. He argued that the strongest reason for the attack, attributing the justification to Trump, is to "send a message." Vance later says, "I just hate bailing Europe out again." The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, argued in favor of the attack for "Restoring Freedom of Navigation" and to "Reestablish deterrence". However, Hegseth was also concerned about the U.S. serving Europe's interests, telling Vance, "I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC."

Later in the chat, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller says that we should soon "make clear to Egypt and Europe what we expect in return." Egypt, of course, receives significant revenues from ships traversing the Suez Canal, something that has greatly decreased due to the Houthi threat. Based on this statement, it appears that the Trump administration plans to seek some sort of reimbursement or concessions from Egypt and European countries. 

It is remarkable that Israel doesn't come up in either of these discussions. No country has been threatened more by the Houthi attacks than Israel and, therefore, no country stands to benefit more from U.S. attacks on Yemen. At the time of the Signal chat, as far as I can tell, the Houthis had not even attacked any shipping since they announced their resumption of attacks. Instead, they appear to have been exclusively firing missiles and drones at Israel proper, rather than ships. In the Signal chat, Michael Waltz even says that much of the U.S.-bound container shipping is still going through the Red Sea. How is it possible that U.S. officials fixate on benefits to Europe and Egypt, but ignore the much greater benefit provided to Israel?

Similarly, while Miller talks about "what we expect in return" from Egypt and Europe, Israel is again ignored. Not only does there not appear to be any expectation that Israel will provide any concessions in return for the U.S. support, it is completely accepted that the U.S. will instead provide further assistance to Israel. Joe Kent, Trump's nominee to run the National Counterterrorism Center, says that the "Israelis will likely take strikes & therefore ask us for more to replenish whatever they use against the Houthis. But that’s a minor factor." So, just to be clear, Egypt and Europe are expected to pay the U.S. but Israel, which is the biggest beneficiary of the U.S. action, will receive additional assistance from the U.S. Does this make any sense?

I think this is an interesting window into how differently Israel is viewed in the minds of U.S. leaders (this is not limited to Republicans). Vance and Hegseth see Europe as "freeloading". Even Egypt is acknowledged as benefiting from U.S. efforts to protect shipping in the Red Sea. But none of the officials seems to care or even be aware of the fact that the entire U.S. action is because of Israel. A simple phone call from Trump to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telling him to reopen the crossings and allow aid into Gaza would have resolved the issue. Instead, Trump would rather support Israel's starvation of Palestinians and then deploy the U.S. military to deal with the fallout. After all of that, none of the officials even seems cognizant of the service that the U.S. is providing Israel.

Another thing that I want to make clear is that while the Signal chat discussed the March 15 U.S. attack on Yemen, the attacks did not end there. To the contrary, there have been U.S. attacks on Yemen every day since, including today. The Houthis are also firing at U.S. forces, though so far ineffectively. While Ansar Allah originally announced that it would only attack ships connected to Israel, after the U.S. attacks it said it would extend its targeting to U.S.-linked shipping as well. The Signal chat also showed the chat participants celebrating that U.S. bombs completely collapsed an entire civilian apartment building due to targeting a single individual. It appears that in addition to everything else, the U.S. has adopted Israeli military tactics.

There were so many failings of Trump officials displayed in the Signal chat that it is understandable that not all will get the same attention. Group participants were shown to be unprofessional; their immediate reaction when the chat was exposed was to lie; and there was clear illegal behavior. But, it shouldn't be lost in all of this that none of them recognized Israel's role in instigating the conflict or expected any Israeli contribution in return for the protection the U.S. would provide. In multiple ways, Israel was treated differently than other U.S. allies. Based on the chat transcript, it appears that Trump is eager to appear to be acting differently than Biden and wants to send a message. Sadly, the only real message that Trump has sent is that, as far as Israel is concerned, he is no different than Biden.

Anonymous says:
Mar 30, 2025 02:34 PM
Nailed it.
Wanderer says:
Mar 30, 2025 10:08 PM
Good analysis but nothing is surprising since US leaders from both sides have been historically licking Israeli balls. The Jewish lobby is impossible to underestimate.
Anonymous says:
Mar 31, 2025 09:50 PM
Thank you. As a legal immigrant I really appreciate you using your citizenship privilege. I hope a lot of citizens will have your courage and show up on April 5th
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