Following conflicting reports over the past three days, it looks like Israel is probably going to attack Iran again in retaliation for their retaliation. David Cameron flew to Israel to ask Israel to calm down, but our loyal friends and allies responded by saying “we will make our own decisions” about retaliation which is a gentler way of saying “fuck you, Cameron”.
Lord Cameron told reporters it was “clear the Israelis are making a decision to act” and the head of the Israeli military confirmed Iran “will be met with a response”. Obviously, this was the plan before Iran had even attacked.
Israel bombed Iran’s consulate building with the intention of provoking a response and is now pretending this makes Israel the victim. This means Israel has the “right” to provoke Iran again, only this time on a potentially much bigger scale.
Iran’s retaliation sent a message that it can breach Israel’s air defences and will not tolerate further provocation. Given Israel has nuclear reactors that Iran could potentially target, and the US has said it would be hard to repel a surprise attack, and the last attack cost Israel $1.3 billion, this should have been enough to make Israel think twice, but apparently not.
The way I see it, Israel has two options: either launch a tame attack on Iran and say it considers the matter closed, or launch something massive. Either its goal is to save face or maximise damage against the country it sees as a mortal enemy and hope the west comes to its rescue.
I just don’t see the logic of anything in between, so let’s hope that if Israel does attack, it chooses the first option because I seriously can’t be arsed with World War III. People with chronic fatigue don’t make good conscripts, even if they want to fight, and I don’t. Not for these fuckers and not for the bloody Tories.
If Israel does attack Iran, western leaders must stick to their guns and not back them under any circumstances. If Israel wants to bring an apocalypse upon itself, we should not do a damn thing to extend that apocalypse to the wider world. I would not enjoy seeing Israel’s genocide supporters get their comeuppance, but I would struggle to sympathise with anyone, apart from the children and the peacemakers. For the rest, it would be a case of reap what you sow and leave us out of it.
Joe Biden has said he would not back Israel in any escalation, but I have zero faith in anything Joe Biden says. Joe Biden probably can’t even remember what Joe Biden says. All I know is US presidents tend to do whatever AIPAC tells them to do and AIPAC will be telling Joe Biden to fund this war with tax dollars from the people who can’t have universal healthcare. The donors who have given Biden $5,376,701 in campaign contributions will insist that American soldiers provide whatever military support Israel needs.
Unfortunately, Rishi Sunak will copy whatever America does because the UK is not allowed to set its own foreign policy. This is my favourite aspect of the “sovereignty” we’ve been hearing so much about over the last few years.
Sunak explained his position on arms exports licences to Israel remains unchanged because if war kicks off with Iran, this will be brilliant for business, so fuck international law. Okay, I might be paraphrasing, but that’s a pretty accurate summary of his position.
David Cameron was boasting we have got ten tons of aid into Gaza to feed the people we’ve helped starve, although he was unclear how much of that aid was dropped onto the heads of Palestinian children. The important thing is Lord Cameron gets brownie points for throwing crumbs to the people who can see their own ribs. Lord Cameron is the real hero of this conflict.
Rumours suggest that if Israelis knew what was being said inside the war cabinet, civilians would be fleeing the country in droves - and that is exactly what some are doing. That’s the convenient thing about being a settler, you have dual nationality and can get out before the bombs fall on you. This is a luxury Palestinians do not have.
Obviously, Europe should be concerned about Israel’s belligerence and taking steps to reign it in before it gets out of hand. Well, even more out of hand. That would be the sensible thing to do and Europe has super-sensible leaders, right?
After Israel broke the Vienna Convention by flattening an Iranian consulate and killing 13, the European Union has taken the perfectly logical decision to sanction…. Iran. Apparently, only Israel has a right to defend itself and Iran was wrong to respond by killing zero people. It must be nice being Israel, living in a world of constant double-standards, knowing other countries will get punished when you decide to attack them.
Iran might have said loud and clear it does not want escalation and Netanyahu might be the one who is escalating for a second time, to save his own career, but the EU insists the sanctions on Iran are necessary… to prevent escalation. This despite even the US President and political analysts around the world expressing concern that Israel is the one trying to escalate.
Netanyahu is hugely unpopular in Israel and this has prompted western liberals to do what western liberals love doing - telling themselves comforting lies. The latest comforting lie doing the rounds is that most Israelis are peace-lovers who just need to get rid of Netanyahu and the genocide will stop. This overlooks the fact an overwhelming majority of the Israeli population support the military action or want it to go further. It also ignores the fact it’s Israeli civilians who are carrying out the genocide.
Disturbingly but unsurprisingly, polling data shows 81% of Israeli Jews think the IDF should show little regard for the safety of civilians in Gaza.
A January poll showed 81.5% believe the war in Gaza is the best way of securing the hostages’ release, even though the families of those hostages are getting arrested for protesting against the war. It’s almost like the Israeli population doesn’t care about the hostages and has its excuse to seize some real estate.
Netanyahu has announced $5 billion of construction close to the Gaza border, meaning the people living in tents will see Israelis gloating from the other side of the prison fence. A conference on resettling Gaza was held in Israel earlier this year and there are plans to expand settlements in the West Bank.
Every single penny should go towards rebuilding Gaza and compensating the survivors, but all the survivors are likely to receive is more bullets. There is the mentality in Israel that if you feel afraid of a Palestinian, you have the right to shoot them.
In contrast to the west, the data shows young Israelis are more right-wing and nationalistic than older generations who were already pretty nationalistic. Israel is a country of hard-liners and the handful of people who reject this ideology are assaulted by police whenever they protest.
Netanyahu’s security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir used to spend his time beating up Palestinians and was convicted of inciting racism and support for terrorism in 2007. Imagine calling the people you illegally occupy “terrorists” when you have a literal terrorist in your government.
The reality is Israel’s population is overwhelmingly pro-war and if we choose to back them against Iran, we can’t sensibly say we’re helping them act in self-defence. We would be endangering not only our own people, but everyone on the planet, to help a lunatic state satiate its bloodlust. There is no good reason for starting World War III, but starting it to protect Israel would definitely be the worst.