In yesterday’s NYT, T. Friedman gave a wrong-headed analysis of the situation in the Persian Gulf and what Biden should try to do now that he is boxed in by the attack in Iran three days ago. His advice is that one should recognize how significantly the Middle-East is changing because the US have become the top world producer—fourth exporter, however, far behind Saudi Arabia—and this has led to a new alliance against Iran by Israel, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia (mezzo voce). This fundamental fact should be recognized in new negotiations. Not a word about Palestine or about the history of the Persian Gulf and Iran, most importantly. According to him, the negotiations should not center on the past nuclear agreement but on a second reality-changing fact, namely that Iran has been manufacturing and using dangerously sophisticated missiles, as shown for instance by an attack in September 2019 on the Abqaiq refinery (by Iran or the Houthis?), and selling them to its proxies (Iraq, Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthis). Not a word about the continued presence of overpowering US forces in the Persian Gulf. And even less on the sale of US sophisticated weaponry to the UAE, SA, Israel, and others.