It Was Never About the Nukes
Israeli leaders have been dreaming of war with Iran for decades and it’s finally coming true
For decades, Israel and its allies have insisted that Iran is on the verge of building a nuclear weapon. This narrative has never been about actual non-proliferation. It’s a pretext. The real goal has always been to isolate Iran, justify endless aggression, and ultimately trigger the kind of instability that could open the door to regime change. The recent Israeli strike and the limp Western response make that clearer than ever: some states are allowed to “defend themselves” with bombs, others are expected to take the hits and say thank you.
The muted and barely disapproving responses of Western countries like the UK, France and Germany are telling: they urge “restraint and de-escalation from all parties” while they reaffirm Israel’s “right to self-defence”. One must ask: self-defence from what exactly? From the non-existent nuclear threat from Iran? The Israelis have been warning the world about the “imminent Iranian nuclear breakthrough” at regular intervals since the 1980s, Netanyahu being a particular fan of this blatant fearmongering tactic. The propaganda has been so often repeated by Israel that it should have lost all meaning by now. In the style of the US’s false claims about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, the nuclear narrative around Iran is a convenient pretext. The real goal is destabilisation.
The truth is that, no matter what the international community says publicly, the modus operandi of the Middle East today more than ever is that Israel has the right to attack whoever they please in the region. The attacked parties – Palestinians, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the ultimate baddie Iran – barely have a right to respond. Israel can act with impunity while its victims must stay obedient and “under control”. The concept of state sovereignty is only real if you are aligned with Western interests – by all accounts Iran isn’t and here we are.
Ultimately, the goal is to force a war on Iran so that this creates unrest, which Western powers covertly hope will bring the Islamic regime down, either “naturally” or by means of an external intervention by, you guessed it, none other than the USA. This is the wet dream of hawkish Israeli and Western leaders alike, case in point: neoconservative American hawk, former Bush and Trump advisor John Bolton expressing, like many others have, his support (glee?) for the attack just this morning.
Strategically speaking, it was a great move by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as he had nothing to lose by attacking Iran now. He came close to losing a vote in the Knesset (Israeli parliament) last week that would have brought his weak coalition government down. The siege and merciless war in Gaza continues (with some opposition in the Israeli armed forces) and now Israel has also placed the West Bank under full lockdown. His government is under pressure from multiple sides and for multiple reasons and his corruption trial continues and his imprisonment for those charges looms on the horizon. He needed a distraction and ideally a patriotic boost. Voilà!
However, this was not an impulse-of-the-moment attack, of course. It was months in preparation and whatever the US State Department says (that the US was not involved), President Trump has already made it plain and clear that he “knew everything” and approves of the attack. It seems that all the talk of a recent fallout between Trump and Netanyahu as well as Trump’s comments this week that he told Netanyahu not to attack Iran was all a ruse months in the making to try to trick Iran into thinking that an Israeli attack wasn’t imminent.
Recently, there has been talk of France and the UK planning to recognise the State of Palestine. It remains to be seen if this will be realised but nonetheless it is completely incongruous with their excusing of unprovoked Israeli aggression against Iran. The Europeans have responded to the attack in classic fashion, urging “de-escalation” while reinforcing the message that Israel can act with impunity because Iran just had it coming. This reflects a tacit agreement with the attack if not outright approval, making them complicit in this blatant attack on Iran’s sovereignty by the genocidal nuclear power that Israel is. So much for Europe being the stalwart of democratic values, am I right?
Interestingly and somewhat funnily, the only mention of the UN Charter or international law came from non-Western countries like Russia and Qatar. In the meantime, the US is moving destroyers into the Middle East, not to restrain Israel from further attacks but to protect them as they continue to carry them out. The entire diplomatic machine is aligned around protecting Israel and keeping Iran boxed in.
The “international community” is a bad joke. It always had a tendency for hypocrisy but that has never been clearer than today. Of course, this has already been on ample display by the outrageously muted Western response to the genocide in Gaza. International law is tragically deader than ever.
This attack (and continued attacks today and in the future) on Iran were never about the (manufactured) threat of nuclear weapons but a calculated tactical move in a wider strategy to box Iran in, weaken its leadership and isolate it from the international community further, forcing it to respond in a way that will justify further action by Israel and its allies. It was always about tipping the scale of the Islamic regime toward collapse, never about peace in the Middle East. Trump says he hope that the attacks will bring the Iranians back to the negotiation table over their nuclear program. I don’t doubt the sincerity of his words, but I also don’t doubt his now clear unwavering support for Israel’s belligerent and unpredictable actions from now on.
This was never about nukes. It’s regime change – with extra steps. And like all such efforts, it’ll most certainly fail the people it pretends to help.