Netanyahu is betting on US intervention
Netanyahu is betting on US intervention
Report: Hani Kamal El-Din
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues intense efforts to incite a major war in the Middle East, and his game becomes crazier and more dangerous. After Israel launched an attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus on April 1, killing 11 people, including two generals, everyone is waiting for an Iranian response.
It has already been pledged, at the highest level – by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. However, no one knows when the responses will be and in what form, although the Americans have warned Israel that attacks may occur soon.
In this context, what does Israel do? Not only does it warn of backlash against Iran, it also unofficially hints that it will strike the sites of Iran’s nuclear program. Iran is already talking about the deterrent destruction of its nuclear center in Dimona. Is the world teetering on the brink of a nuclear catastrophe?
The German airline Lufthansa announced the suspension of its flights to Tehran. According to unofficial information, foreign diplomats are leaving Israel, while Israel has closed some of its embassies or restricted their work in 28 countries.
Meanwhile, provocations on his part continue – three sons of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh were killed in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday. Their killing was not done as fighters, but rather the aim was to intimidate the Palestinian leadership.
Despite this, Israel withdrew most of its forces from the Gaza Strip, but Netanyahu still announced an operation in Rafah, in the south of the Strip, on the border with Egypt. An operation that could lead to huge losses among the Palestinian population, and the United States has advised against implementing it.
Joe Biden has called Netanyahu’s actions in Gaza a “mistake” in the past few days, but still promises to protect Israel if it comes under attack from Iran. Here lies the crux of the matter.
Netanyahu wants to incite Iran to launch an attack on Israel, to force the Americans to intervene directly in the conflict on behalf of the Jewish state. Netanyahu’s idea is simple: Iran attacks Israel, then Israel responds with strikes on Iran. Here the Americans join, who will also attack Iran to prevent it from causing serious harm to Israel. An intense US-Iranian war began.
This plan is not new. Israel has dreamed for decades of destroying Iran at the hands of the United States. The closest Israel came to the United States to this was the mid-2000s, after the American occupation of Iraq. Then, during the George W. Bush administration, Vice President Dick Cheney put serious pressure on plans to attack Iran. But even then Washington refrained from this crazy idea, and even more so, the United States does not want to start this war now. Iran doesn’t want that either.
But Netanyahu’s provocations continue. He has nowhere to retreat – his domestic political career will end immediately with the end of the war, with trial and imprisonment. The operation in Gaza has reached a dead end, which puts Israel in its worst situation in decades, both at the international and security levels.
The killing of Iranian generals in Damascus was a completely deliberate provocation. Netanyahu tried to force Iran to respond to Israel, preferably from Iranian territory. But Tehran is well aware of this and will not agree with Netanyahu and will not risk war with America.
Iran will respond indirectly by striking Israel from Lebanon or Syria, allowing the Americans to ignore Netanyahu’s call to “punish the ayatollahs.” Of course, in the event of a strike from Lebanese territory, the Israeli leadership will try to involve the United States in the operation against Hezbollah, but the Americans will not participate in this adventure either.
Israel itself, which constantly threatens to invade Lebanon, will not do so alone because it no longer has the power, and without American support it will not be able to even imitate a “successful operation.”
Six months of Israeli genocide in Gaza have already cost the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinians. This nightmare should not develop into a major war in the Middle East. A war that Muslims, Americans, and even their globally oriented leadership do not need.
Moreover, Washington wants to replace Netanyahu, and the world is increasingly demanding an end to the Palestinian genocide. No provocations against Iran can change the course of events.
Both Israel and Netanyahu have already lost. Attempts to prolong the Israeli Prime Minister’s suffering will only result in new blood. Everyone understands this – in Washington, in Moscow, and even in Tel Aviv. Even more so in Tehran, whose revenge will be the coldest and most precise.
