The speed of the collapse of the Afghan government and the army set up by the Americans, with its 300,000 troops and advanced equipment, in the face of Taliban forces, causes great embarrassment to the Biden administration, whose leaders promised until the last minute, based on intelligence estimates, that such a scenario should not occur.
The rapid collapse shows how culturally and politically rooted the American attempt was to instill in Afghanistan a liberal worldview, and how wrong this approach was in the first place;
And it is further evidence of the difficulty that the West in general, and American intelligence in particular, has in understanding the Islamic world.
But the more serious problem is that the decision to leave Afghanistan, which led to the collapse, is part of an American strategy - which Trump also shared in part, but was intensified by the Biden administration - to reduce the US role as an international power and especially in the Middle East. The collapse will be enshrined in history as another manifestation of American weakness, stemming from the unwillingness to pay the price of human life and money involved in the ongoing struggle against radical Islam, and may therefore strengthen extremist Islamic elements such as Iran, al-Qaeda and ISIS, but also Muslim Brotherhood elements. And encourage them to challenge the United States and its allies, including Israel.
The basic lesson of the dramatic events in Kabul is that with all the importance of the irreplaceable strategic partnership with the United States, Israel must recognize the limits of its powerful backing, and therefore adhere more closely to the principle that we defend ourselves on our own. The hesitation in response to the many provocations by Tehran, and this is true in the Palestinian context, once again shows how vital Israeli direct responsibility is for security in Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley. And giving a key role to Americans in managing the security issue as part of the Obama administration's proposals for a permanent settlement is appalling.
It is precisely in the face of the weakness that the United States exudes that Israel stands out in the regional arena as a stable backbone that moderate elements can rely on more. This is an opportunity to leverage the problematic developments in Afghanistan Washington: The plight of Iran and its metastases across the Middle East can also be exploited for this purpose.