Western powers have given Israel a free pass to livestream its genocide in Gaza. But. with recent weeks bringing increasing criticism and resistance, the apartheid state is now trying to push its Western accomplices into backing its unprovoked war on Iran. Undoubtedly, many in the Western halls of power are salivating over the prospect of regime change in oil-rich Iran. However, it’s still possible to stop Israel’s provocation turning into Iraq 2.0.

Corporate commentators salivate over Iran’s oil

Israel has spent decades trying to push for war against Iran. Why? Because Iran and its allies in the Middle East have long been the only ones actually presenting a military challenge to Israel’s settler-colonial crimes in Palestine.

Before the disastrous US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, for example, Israeli war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu promised that ousting Saddam Hussein would be great for the region. In reality, his overthrow created ‘a thousand Saddams’, leading to the deaths of up to a million civilians amid skyrocketing non-state terror. Today, Netanyahu and other Israeli officials are repeating this playbook, threatening Iran’s leader with the same fate and trying to convince the world this would actually be good for the region.

Iran has the planet’s third-biggest crude oil reserves and second-biggest proven reserves of natural gas. And corporate commentators are openly admitting that replacing Iran’s government with a US-submissive regime would be good for fossil-fuel bosses:

They're already talking about regime change and taking Iran's oil.

I feel sick. pic.twitter.com/5odJXETbWZ

— ADAM (@AdameMedia) June 16, 2025

The Western establishment media, meanwhile, is faithfully trying to beat the drums of war on Iran, with headlines like Trump is urged to go “all in” on crushing Iran and What are Trump’s options for dealing with Iran?. From the US to the UK, and from France to Germany, conservative and liberal propagandists alike are acting like we should sympathise with the genocidal aggressor, Israel, over the hundreds of civilians it has already killed with its unprovoked assault on Iran. Even Israeli media admit that the apartheid state is hungry for war, but their Western counterparts fail to point that out.

The problem is, it’s so easy to expose Israel’s lies

In 2003, social media was in its infancy and mainstream propaganda still dominated. So the lies, illegality, pointlessness, and heartless chaos of the invasion of Iraq prevailed. But now, a quick search for the facts reveals that:

• Iran was at the negotiating table, ready to pledge never to develop nuclear weapons.
• US intelligence itself recently assessed that Iran was not currently developing such weapons.
• Israel, meanwhile, already has nuclear weapons, which it is currently modernising with Western support.
• The apartheid state blew up the negotiating table with its unprovoked attack on Iran.
• Israel is now openly engaging in international terrorism in Iran, just like it did in Lebanon last year.
• The rogue nation is threatening Iranian civilians with collective punishment, demanding that they leave the capital en masse (which is almost certainly illegal).

Because of this, many people can immediately see straight through the ridiculously embarrassing attempts by Western politicians and media outlets to convince people that the victim is somehow the bad guy and the aggressor is the good guy.

In 2003, meanwhile, the invasion of Iraq came under two years after the “single largest loss of life resulting from a foreign attack on American soil” on 9/11. So, the massive climate of fear in the US essentially opened the door for overall public support for the invasion. Only years later did many people actually wake up to the absolute disaster that it was.

2025 is different

Donald Trump, meanwhile, actually tried to paint himself as some kind of anti-war sage in a break from the Republican Party establishment that destroyed Iraq. He even warned that Barack Obama was going to start a war with Iran. But when Obama – as one of the few good things he did – actually made a deal with Iran, Trump trashed it as soon as he took office, unnecessarily ramping up tensions.

Israel is a “junior partner” – in Netanyahu’s own words – to US imperialism. But while the US fears few repercussions of the genocide it has funded in occupied Gaza, it is much more wary about taking on the more powerful Iran. And Trump himself knows that a big section of his base is against pointless foreign wars of aggression.

Israel, meanwhile, is haemorrhaging money protecting itself from Iranian retaliation. It is riling some US figures by holding US citizens hostage. And a full-blown war would impact the US economy at a time when it’s already struggling.

There was no 9/11 moment pushing the US to act. Trump does not have the overwhelming support of US citizens for a war that Israel stubbornly started amid a genocide that has everyone’s attention. And he risks severely undermining his political brand if he does attack Iran. So while nothing is off the table, and the drums of war are beating just as they were in 2003, there is still reason to believe 2025 will not see Iran become Iraq 2.0.

Featured image via YouTube screenshot/CBC News

By Ed Sykes

This post was originally published on Canary.