{"id":1611421,"date":"2024-04-15T11:20:49","date_gmt":"2024-04-15T11:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacobin.com\/2024\/04\/netanyahu-war-israel-iran-biden\/"},"modified":"2024-04-15T11:22:37","modified_gmt":"2024-04-15T11:22:37","slug":"netanyahu-has-brought-us-to-the-brink-of-war-with-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/04\/15\/netanyahu-has-brought-us-to-the-brink-of-war-with-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"Netanyahu Has Brought Us to the Brink of War With Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n\n\n\n

The terrifying escalation of attacks between Israel and Iran is a predictable result of Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s clear desire to start a war with Iran \u2014 enabled, like everything else Netanyahu has done since October 7, by Joe Biden.<\/h3>\n\n\n
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\n Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech at the Palmachim Airbase near the city of Rishon LeZion on July 5, 2023. (Jack Guez \/ AFP via Getty Images)\n <\/figcaption> \n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n \n

Even in a world that practically runs on industrial levels of political amnesia and hypocrisy, the events of the last few days have been something. Here\u2019s the broad narrative that officials and commentators from the United States, Europe, and Israel have been busy selling the world since Iran\u2019s flurry of military strikes on Israel this weekend:<\/p>\n

The Iranian state, a cross between ISIS and the Third Reich<\/a>, recklessly launched an unprovoked<\/a> attack<\/a> on an Israel that was minding its own business<\/a>, ratcheting up tensions between the two countries and single-handedly bringing the region to the brink of war. The incident, a dangerous and inexplicable<\/a> escalation that was only stopped thanks to the timely intervention of Israel\u2019s partners and neighbor states, is a reminder of Iran\u2019s long record<\/a> of terrorism<\/a>, disregard<\/a> for international law, and hostility to peace<\/a>. It points to the urgent need<\/a> for the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to condemn and even sanction Iran, at minimum, if not finally take the gloves off<\/a> and attack it directly<\/a> \u2014 possibly even carry out regime change<\/a>, so it can finally stop senselessly threatening Israel and its other neighbors.<\/p>\n

You do not need some idealized view of Iran\u2019s repressive, theocratic, and militaristic government to understand this self-serving version of events has little to do with reality.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s attack, as alarming and potentially disastrous as it was, was neither inexplicable nor unprovoked. It was in direct response to Israel\u2019s outrageous bombing of an Iranian consulate building in Syria two weeks ago, which killed two high-ranking Iranian generals and damaged<\/a> the nearby Canadian embassy. The United States tends to sharply criticize<\/a> other countries for breaching the inviolability of embassies, even taking Cuba to task<\/a> for the fact that its embassy workers there were hit by a likely psychosomatic<\/a> illness that had nothing to do with foreign subterfuge.<\/p>\n

Yet this time, the US government didn\u2019t even bother to so much as verbally criticize Israel\u2019s very real bombing of a consular building, simply ramping up the flow of weapons in the aftermath<\/a>. In fact, while most Security Council members condemned or at least expressed horror at this violation of long-standing international norms at the time, the United States, France, and the United Kingdom alone refused<\/a> to do so, using the opportunity to suggest that it was Iran that was responsible for the attack on its own consulate.<\/p>\n

This comes on top of a series of provocations over the past six months by the Israeli government, which, apparently unsatisfied with the mass murder it\u2019s been allowed to carry out in Gaza, has been desperately trying to start multiple other wars in its immediate surroundings.<\/p>\n

Since the start of the war<\/a>, Israel has<\/a> routinely<\/a> bombed<\/a> Syria<\/a> and Lebanon<\/a>, including its capital Beirut<\/a>, the last time fears of a regional war briefly spiked then subsided thanks only to the target\u2019s unwillingness to take the bait. With Iran alone, Israel has assassinated<\/a> a spate<\/a> of Iranian<\/a> military<\/a> figures<\/a> before this latest act, which amounts to a direct strike on Iranian soil.<\/p>\n

To call what Israel did the other week a provocation, in other words, is a massive understatement: it was an outright act of war. And it\u2019s one that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu knew well would elicit a destructive response from Iran.<\/p>\n

That Israel and others were able to shoot down nearly all of the hundreds of drones and missiles before they did any damage is less a testament to their military capabilities than the fact that this was a calculated part of Iran\u2019s approach. Tehran, which throughout<\/a> this war has shown<\/a> no interest<\/a> in getting into a direct war with Israel, warned Israel\u2019s neighbors<\/a> in advance that the strikes were coming, as well as the United States through<\/a> diplomatic back channels days before the attack, while making clear<\/a> its disinterest in any further escalation.<\/p>\n

This should be sobering for those Israel supporters who used the foiled strike as an occasion for a victory dance over the impregnability of Israel\u2019s air defenses and thus a reason to simply keep escalating: in an actual war, Iran won\u2019t be doing the courtesy of telegraphing its strikes days in advance.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s reason to believe even this calibrated but terrifyingly risky bit of Iranian retaliation could have been avoided. Iran\u2019s permanent mission to the UN has said<\/a> in the wake of the attack that they had wanted a UNSC condemnation of the consulate bombing that never came, and in fact, Iran has, in the past<\/a>, been content to accept such a thing as an alternative to military action, as when the Taliban attacked the Iranian consulate in 1998 and killed several of its diplomats.<\/p>\n

But we\u2019ll never know if that might have done the trick here: the Biden administration and the British and French governments blocked it<\/a>, with the US ambassador pretending that it wasn\u2019t clear who was responsible for the bombing, even as the Pentagon openly blamed<\/a> Israel for the strikes and Israeli officials all but admitted<\/a> it was them.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Israeli government is now, with one hand on its heart and the other melodramatically on its brow, invoking international law and running to the same UN that at various times it\u2019s declared antisemitic<\/a> and li<\/em><\/a>terally<\/em><\/a> Hamas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This kind of hypocrisy \u2014 ignoring both one minute, loudly feigning shock that someone else is doing so the next \u2014 isn\u2019t a uniquely Israeli innovation, as the behavior of Russia and the United States has long shown. But what is new is the level of utter gall Israeli officials have mustered to do this, having spent the past half a year going further in trampling over international law than even the worst rogue states of the last half-century.<\/p>\n

Listing every single violation Israel has carried out over the last six months would take a short book, but it includes:<\/p>\n