Did Iran just join the Mecca Defense Pact? Imagine the suspicion and fear today in the Israeli govt. over yesterday's meeting between Saudi, Turkey, Pakistan and Iran. That's not the way the Mecca Defense Pact was meant to work. It was meant to be Saudi, Turkey and Pakistan "ganging up" on Iran, directly or indirectly supporting Israel's Iran policy. It was not meant to be a covert way for those 3 nations to ALIGN with Iran as a block against Israeli attempts at regional hegemony (if that's what's happening). Even worse, Israel is slowly realizing that its insistence on a US war on Iran to achieve that hegemony has forced Trump to begin disengaging from the region, clearing the way for just this kind of anti-Israel pact, seen by its signatories as a political/security necessity to replace US influence in the region. And the timing of the meeting - the day before Israelis go to the polls - was probably not coincidental. These developments are undoubtedly viewed by Israel as a direct threat to not only its long-desired regional hegemony, but to its 'very existence' (that said, when your existence is predicated on dominating everyone else, most things 'threaten your existence'). So what does Israel do now? Most likely it will try to "finish the job" in Iran, expecting that it can still rely on (coerce?) Trump into taking part. But that could be a risky best. Despite Trump's statements, there's likely no love lost between him and Bibi, and there's no reason to think that Tom Barack's recent statements about the Middle East needing to 'go it alone' from now on excluded Israel. But Israeli social and political DNA is incompatible with real co-habitation with, and respect for, its Middle Eastern neighbors, because Israel's real origin story (not the fabricated 3,000 yr old one) centers on domination not cooperation. Trump needs to ditch Israel so that a new 'MAGA-aligned' order in the Middle East can emerge. The entire world needs it. But Israel needs to re-start the war with Iran to prevent that new Middle East from emerging. It seems to be their only option. And they need the US involved. How they go about ensuring that remains open (Israeli false flag in the US?). Nevertheless, these dynamics present a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Israel could be encouraged to think the US would fully support it in a new attack on Iran, only for the US to prove somewhat lack-luster when push came to shove. Iran would then be free to focus its response almost entirely on Israel, rather than blowing up Gulf State energy infrastructure and throwing the world into an economic crisis of biblical proportions. And if Iran is a 'secret signatory' to the Mecca Defense Pact, the other parties could, in theory, help Iran out in various ways in its response to Israel. Of course, Israel would not 'go quietly', and in this scenario - which it would view as 'existential' - we may all find ourselves in a situation where, rather than Iran blowing up gulf state infrastructure, Israel does it in a last desperate attempt to forestall a new emerging reality that excludes Israel as the regional hegemon.