It is pretty clear that Israel and the US are going all in. They have to win now, by any normal understanding of this.
I’m not a fan or Israel or US policy but that is beside the point. Their opportunity is now, and they would be foolish to squander this.
Rightly or wrongly, Iran is toast. I just hope that their leadership goes with it. They are no friends of the Iranian people. And for once, I don’t believe this aggression by Israel and the US will give rise to a major insurgency against the aggressors. This time the Iranian regime may well implode.
Even putting aside attacks by Iran's proxies, Iran directly attacked Israel first in April 2024. Biden then asked Israel to "take a win", but that Israel did not respond then, does not negate the fact of Iran's initiation of direct war
Nice analysis. I would beg to differ with you on whether or not Iran started the war. Iran, through it proxies Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthis, have been waging war on Israel for 20 years. As well, Iran's stated goal was to wipe Israel off of the map, so to speak.
I agree. I don't mean to say that Iran wasn't aggressive to Israel, or that it didn't want to eliminate it. Just that this round of attacks was not initiated by them.
The Iranian regime is a theocratic totalitarian dictatorship run by murderers and terrorists with no care for their own people. On the global freedom index, Iran scores only 11 out of 100 while Israel scores 74 out of 100. I have no love for Israel's current genocide-committing government, but perhaps every Iran-apologist should try and survive an Iranian prison for a while, just to experience what they stand for. Sometimes, it takes a beast to kill an even nastier one.
Lets put this another way:- why does Israel assume it has the right to demand Iran eliminate it's alleged progress towards a nuclear bomb when Israel already has undeclared illegal nuclear weapons and refuses to sign internation non proliferation treaties where as Iran has signed them all?
"Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons. Estimates of Israel's stockpile range between 90 and 400 nuclear warheads ... Israel has not signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), despite international pressure to do so.... Israel maintains a policy of deliberate ambiguity, never officially denying nor admitting to having nuclear weapons, instead repeating over the years that "Israel will not be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons to the Middle East". However, in November 2023, amid the Gaza war, the junior Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu publicly considered dropping a nuclear bomb over Gaza ... Israel is believed to have begun full-scale production of nuclear weapons following the 1967 Six-Day War, although it had built its first operational nuclear weapon by December 1966 ... "
"Iran is not known to currently possess weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and has signed treaties repudiating the possession of WMD including the Biological Weapons Convention,[1] the Chemical Weapons Convention,[2] and the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)."
Great articule Tomás. But remember that Israel is in fact annihilating the country called Palestine. They dont even need to use their extremely dangerous nuclear weapons to do this. They are not threaten to do it, they are doing it as we speak.
I believe nor Irán or Israel should have nuclear weapons.
The state of palestine is a country, it is recognised a safe sovereign state. After decades of wars and violation of not just a few peace treaties but 300+ by israel, when they finally retaliate to take what's rightfully theirs, that's not "destroying the Jewish state" that's a right to self defence. Israel’s illegal occupation and this live genocide is what's "destroying the Palestinian state".
Yasser Arafat, glad he is no loner with us, was given everything he asked for in the 1990's peace deal but then walked away because he never wanted peace only perpetual fighting/conflict with the Jews. He was a terrible human being and a world class thief who stole billions from his people.
It's true that Arafat played a huge role in the Oslo Accords in the 1990s, where both sides made historic compromises. He recognized Israel, and Israel allowed limited Palestinian self-rule. But when the 2000 Camp David Summit came, Arafat walked away from a major offer that included most of the West Bank, Gaza, and even a capital in East Jerusalem.
A lot of people — including President Clinton — felt he missed a real chance at peace. Others argue the deal still had gaps on sensitive issues like refugees and full sovereignty over Jerusalem.
As for corruption — yes, after his death, investigations showed that billions in aid were mismanaged or stolen, while everyday Palestinians lived in poverty. So there’s no question that he had serious failings, both as a leader and in his decisions during the peace process.
But it’s also true that not all the blame lies with him. There were hardliners and extremists on both sides who worked to sabotage peace — and we’re still living with the fallout of that today.
Palestine is not a country. If you mean the Gaza strip, it is time to realize that its inhabitants, it existence, its infrastructure sole purpose was to be part of a multi-prong attack intended to destroy the Jewish State. It didn't work, and now the whole project is being dismantled.
Why do you rewrite history with such ignorant nonsense: "Palestine is not a country"? Yes it is, according the UN and most of the rest of the world. Such violent ignorance is why the Iranians are now going to eliminate Zionist Israel.
These are not remotely comparable. Palestine is not being threatened with elimination whereas Iran explicitly many times talks about wiping Israel off the face of the Earth - Death to Israel, Death to America. Yasser Arafat, glad he is no loner with us, was given everything he asked for in the 1990's peace deal but then walked away because he never wanted peace only perpetual fighting/conflict with the Jews. He was a terrible human being and a world class thief who stole billions from his people. Iran only wants nukes for one purpose and that is to terrorize Israel and its other Arab neighbors. If Israel did not have nukes they would have been invaded many times by other Arab nations by now. Israel has never threatened to annihilate another country.
True they never threatened to annihilate at all. They didn't talk about that, but surely showed it. Talk about their illegal expansion beyond what UN had proposed, talk about how they were a minority first who had captured more land than the Arab majority which was totally unfair to Arabs, even Rabin was killed by his right wing extremist, and Civil wars within palestine and israel. Even if leaders were ready enough, extremists from within sabotaged the peace which all lead to the downfall of the Oslo Accords.
Yes, and if Palestinians had the firepower to annihilate Israel (roles reversed) they would not hesitate to do so. Yet you expect Israel to not do the same? "Should" is all nice and all, and what we tell kiddies to do to behave, but in a struggle to the death, each group of people would much rather be alive than dead. Mind you, I am no fan of Israel. They are little different from South Africa when ruled by white supremacists. But I do live in reality.
Let's not forget the fact that they actually provided for them when they came as refugees, slowly capturing over their land. Even if Palestinians had the firepower, What would they annihilate Israel for unless israel itself had evil intentions ? Just because we can reverse roles, doesn't mean we can assume or come to a conclusion that that's what they'd do. Sure, hamas had not come to agreements on less than like 10 treaties, but Israel? It continued to break one after the other and so did palestine in defence of it. Leave that, after bombing and destroying the entire state with only a few remaining now, what's the use of bombing civilians now? During festivals? What about the sexual atrocities in children? That's what palestine would do? No. No Chance. Even their hostages were treated with care by Hamas.
Wakey wakey Tomas Pueyo: IRAN WAS'NT GOING TO ATTACK THE ZIONIST REGIME unless it attacked first, as noted (amongst thousand of recent news paper headlines globally) by Reuters a few weeks ago:-
"Iran threatens to annihilate Israel should it launch a major attack"
Before they'd even been admitted to the UN on 11 May 1949 as a full member state, the Zionist's have been blatantly scheming for centuries to provoke wars and conflict and death to non Jews and steal ALL the Palestinians' home land (see below).
So in fact Israel provoked it's own annihilation last week by attacking Iran first: in Spanish we call the claim that "Israel didn’t threaten any other country with annihilation" "caca del toro".
These sorts of repulsive Zionist's lies to support their childish “victim mentality” and their blatant provocations have been going on for at least the last 80 years or so:-
• 1945 October 24 --- United Nations (UN) was officially formed.
• 1947 November 29 --- United Nations adopted Resolution 181 (II) recommending the adoption and implementation of a plan of partition of Palestine and the creation of independent Arab and Jewish States in the British Mandate of Palestine. The Arab state was to have a territory of 11,100 square kilometres or 42%, the Jewish state a territory of 14,100 square kilometres or 56%, while the remaining 2%—comprising the cities of Jerusalem, Bethlehem and the adjoining area—would become an international zone. The vote was rejected by the Arab parties, who refused to allow their land to be stolen from them, and was immediately followed by a civil war between Palestinian Arabs who were supported by the Arab Liberation Army against the Palestinian Jews, while the region was still fully under British rule.
• 1947 November 30 --- Small-scale local skirmishes began and gradually escalated until March 1948. When the violence started, Palestinians had already begun fleeing, expecting to return after the war.
• 1947 December 18 --- massacres at Al-Khisas by the the Palmach the main paramilitary organization of the Yishuv (pre-1948 Jewish community in Palestine) during the period of the British Mandate.
• 1947 December 30 --- The Haifa Oil Refinery massacre took place on in Mandatory Palestine, when 39–41 Jewish refinery workers were killed by their Arab coworkers in a mass lynching. The massacre was a response to an Irgun terrorist attack (a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated in Mandatory Palestine between 1931 and 1948), where grenades were thrown into a crowd of about 100 day-labourers waiting at a bus stop outside the main gate of the then British-owned Haifa Oil Refinery. Six Arabs were killed and 42 were wounded.[6] Minutes after the Irgun attack, Arab refinery workers and others began attacking the Jewish refinery workers, resulting in 39–41 deaths and 49 injuries, before the British Army and Palestine Police units arrived to put an end to the violence.
• 1947 December 31 --- massacres at Balad al-Shaykh was the killing of a large number of Palestinians by the Haganah in the village of Balad al-Shaykh during the early stages of the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine. It was one of the largest, and earliest, massacres during the 1948 Palestine war. Between 60 and 70 Arab villagers were killed in the attack, which was conducted as a retaliation to the Haifa Oil Refinery massacre.
• 1948 March --- between 70,000 and 100,000 Palestinians, mostly middle- and upper-class urban elites, were expelled or fled.
• 1948 March 10 to early April --- Plan Dalet finalized and launched : a large-scale offensive to capture land and empty it of Palestinian Arabs, in which Zionist forces shifted to an offensive strategy. It was a set of guidelines to take control of Mandatory Palestine, declare a Jewish state, and defend its borders and people, including the Jewish population outside of the borders, "before, and in anticipation of" the invasion by regular Arab armies. It specifically included gaining control of areas wherever Yishuv populations existed, including those outside the borders of the Jewish state.
• 1948 May 14 --- Israeli Declaration of Independence ending the British Mandate of Palestine causing the surrounding Arab states – Egypt, Transjordan, Iraq and Syria – to invade what had just ceased to be Mandatory Palestine, and immediately attacked Israeli forces and several Jewish settlements. The conflict thus escalated and became the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The 1948 war ended with Israeli forces imposing ethnic cleansing of Palestine by controlling approximately 78 percent of historical Palestine.
• 1949 May 11 --- Israel was admitted to the United Nations (UN) as a full member state.
• 1953 --- Israel committed the most notorious reprisal massacre in the West Bank against the village of Qibya, where 45 houses were blown up and at least 69 Palestinians were killed.
• 1967 --- In a war with Egypt, Jordan and Syria, known as the 1967 War, or the June War, Israel delivered what came to be known as the “Naksa”, meaning setback or defeat, to the armies of the neighbouring Arab countries, and to the Palestinians who lost all what remained of their homeland. Israel absorbed the whole of historical Palestine, as well as additional territory from Egypt and Syria. By the end of the war, Israel had expelled another 300,000 Palestinians from their homes, including 130,000 who were displaced in 1948, and gained territory that was three and a half times its size. The Zionist then ignored UN resolution 242 calling for Israeli withdrawal and return of the land they'd stolen from the Palestinians.
1974 November 22 --- United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3236 recognized the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, national independence and sovereignty in Palestine, again completely ignored by the Zionists.
In other words the Israeli Zionists violently stole 100% the Palestinians' home land rather than the 56% allotted to them under the 1947 UN resolution.
Unsurprisingly the locals were a bit pissed off have been trying to fight off the colonial Zionist scum thieves who'd been grooming the Jews with their corrupt ideology since at least 1897 when Theodor Herzl publish his disgusting work. Indeed the Jews have been pressing to invade other countries for centuries before then, at least back to 1564.
International politics are not about morality, or "who has the right" to do anything. That is a poor lens to understand reality. If X and Y are enemies, and X has a military advantage over Y, it will try to maintain that advantage, while Y will try to shorten it. That explains both Iran's nuclear program and Israel's attack. What did you expect, for Israel's leadership to say "ok, since we have it, let's let them have it as well because they have a right to it"? That would have been extremely foolish
International politics are not about morality, or "who has the right" to do anything. If X has a military advantage over Y, it will try to maintain that advantage, and Y will try to shorten it. That explains both Iran's nuclear program and Israel's attack. What did you expect, for Israel's leadership to say "ok, since we have it, let's let thel have it because they have a right to it"? That would have been extremely foolish
Thanks for asking, depends on what specific topics you want to know more about. I'd start with reading Thierry Meyssan type in your search word (top right of page):-
This has got me curious - do you have a post somewhere about your research process for your articles? I'm always impressed with the vast amount of sources you cite and I'm generally curious how you find, vet, and mold the information from your sources into your articles
If Iran had spent billions of rials on improving the lives of their citizens rather than building a nuclear weapon and arming proxies with a goal of annihilating Israel their country and the world would both be in a better place.
I was nodding my head along to most of this: nuclear threat, yep. Two clear goals for this war, yep. Missile strikes on nuclear facilities and targeted assassinations, yep. Then I got down to this quote allegedly from Israeli defense minister Katz and my blood ran cold:
"Katz says Israel must bring about 'a mass evacuation of the population from Tehran, in order to destabilize the regime and increase deterrence.'"
UHHHH. That escalated quickly. A mass evacuation like they did in Gaza?
I broadly support Israel, but I don't think their recent approach in Gaza has been either necessary or humane. Repeating it in Tehran would be another tragedy. It would also be the farthest thing from deterrence. I understand that hatred for Israel is not limited to the Iranian government but also represented among the people due to indoctrination. However, it's not as widespread in Iran as in Gaza, yet. A mass evacuation of Tehran would change that for the worse. It would change from shallow, party-line dislike to deep, personal trauma. And whatever new government comes to power would have the perfect rallying cry of vengeance with which to collect support.
Let's hope Katz is either misrepresenting his plan for political purposes, or gets stymied by cooler heads.
I do not care for the leadership of Israel, who are committing war crimes aplenty. But I do understand that they will take any steps they deem required to ensure Israel's survival. Actually, I expect them to go brutally overboard. Golda Meir said Israelis would rather be alive with a bad image than dead and pitied. They will indeed be alive and hated.
> has recently been weeks to months away from developing a nuclear weapon.
Why are you blindly repeating Israeli propaganda? Why should Iran not have a nuclear weapons if Israel, the most aggressive terror state on this planet, has them?
At least there is an illusion to be had, whereas there is no question regarding Israel's genocidal qualities. Yet you don't seem to have a problem with its possession of nuclear weapons.
"Should" is all nice and all, and what we tell kiddies to do to behave, but in a struggle to the death, each group of people would much rather be alive than dead. Mind you, I am no fan of Israel. They are little different from South Africa when ruled by white supremacists. But I do live in reality.
Why celebrate death and destruction in Iran, while ignoring the fact that Israel has already built a nuclear bomb? Hundreds of nuclear warheads, most likely. Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty; Israel is not.
I do not celebrate it. Death is awful. Where do you see celebration of death in Iran?
But just as the military leadership of Japan before WWII brought about mass death and destruction of their country by their actions, so now is the theocratic leadership of Iran doing so.
Thanks for reminding everybody that the US is the only country to have dropped nuclear bombs on entire cities and started the nuclear arms race. You may not be celebrating, but you are justifying.
Iran has been enriching uranium for decades, so by now it should have nuclear weapon possibilities. The fact that it suspended its nuclear weapons program in 2003 does not mean it actually stopped further enrichment. That, and the fact that it cleared out its Fordow facility a few days ago leads me to think it is well capable to produce nuclear weapons.
The only threat Iran, Hamas or others pose to Israel is ending the exclusion of 40% of the population. The Israel enclave especially its software engineering and IDF has resources to reintegrate the country with citizenship and participation by all. Protecting Hebrews and Hebrew culture along with others isn’t rocket science, it’s called constitutional checks and balances on tyranny of majority. Until now Israel has chosen instead exclusion, terror and wars and as this article accurately concludes that has gotten to the point of needing permanent war against neighbors. This puts Israel in a weak position and likely will lead to regime change. Israel can torment Iran from the air but has no ground capacity. The US has less ground capacity in Iran than Iraq, which it lost. Nuclear weapons are mostly irrelevant to the Iran war and the larger conflict to end partition of the Land of Jerusalem because Israel is well armed with nuclear weapons and no number of Iranian nuclear bombs would degrade that capability. Israel is dependent on the American shield, communications, air and naval forces threat that so far has kept Saudi, Egypt and Turkiye neutral. Iran is resilient and most likely will shoulder bombardment. The demographics are overwhelmingly, economies are rising and sooner or later aspirant leaders will come to the region powers, Arab, Turkic, Hebrew and Persian, and deconflict and stabilize the region. That achievement could mark the end of clientelism to foreign major powers that has reigned since the disintegration of Pax Ottoman. Iran today represents the future of self ruled Middle East.
I think the world was broadly concerned about Iran having nuclear weapons. Their statements to the desired elimination of Israel and “ The great satan” are unique. If the US bombings are “one and done”, I think it will be viewed positively. Iran is sending missiles into civilian areas. Israel (if media is honest) is not.
To the extent we can see further Abraham accords develop and a general calming of things in the Middle East, it seems unlikely that Iran will see any logic in continuing the fight. If Israel will stop its attacks and let peace develop, tensions will subside. At some point, if Iran can rejoin the global economy, it could be the best environment since 1979. Here’s hoping.
> Iran is sending missiles into civilian areas. Israel (if media is honest) is not.
Not even the most biased media is trying to hide the fact that Israel bombed densely populated areas of Tehran to take out high ranking officials, yet here you are claiming Israel isn't targeting civilian areas. I hope you're simply ignorant and not getting paid to spread these lies.
It seems to me that, if Israel’s goal is to stop Iran from ever acquiring nuclear weapons, then regime change and full-scale invasion are the only effective options. Just hitting nuclear sites isn’t enough—they can and probably will be rebuilt again. And it’s hard to imagine Iran genuinely giving up its ambitions and sticking to non-proliferation, more so after this attack.
But the reality is, Israel doesn’t have the capacity to invade Iran or bring about regime change. It will probably push the U.S. to get involved, but that kind of intervention seems extremely unlikely given the current administration.
In the end, this attack may do more harm than good. It’s likely to deepen resentment in Iran, fuel long-term hostility, and make the region even less stable.
The region has been in a hellish stalemate for decades. Sometimes you just have to make a decision to act. I think that's why Israel is being so thorough in Gaza as well. Enough is enough.
Ah yes, nothing better than to thoroughly spring clean an area of undesirable humans, right?
Enlighten us, how exactly will this thorough cleansing solve the situation? I'm sure after everything is nice and clean the remaining Palestinians will love Israel, right?
It is pretty clear that Israel and the US are going all in. They have to win now, by any normal understanding of this.
I’m not a fan or Israel or US policy but that is beside the point. Their opportunity is now, and they would be foolish to squander this.
Rightly or wrongly, Iran is toast. I just hope that their leadership goes with it. They are no friends of the Iranian people. And for once, I don’t believe this aggression by Israel and the US will give rise to a major insurgency against the aggressors. This time the Iranian regime may well implode.
I hope you’re right
Even putting aside attacks by Iran's proxies, Iran directly attacked Israel first in April 2024. Biden then asked Israel to "take a win", but that Israel did not respond then, does not negate the fact of Iran's initiation of direct war
Fair. I meant this round
Nice analysis. I would beg to differ with you on whether or not Iran started the war. Iran, through it proxies Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthis, have been waging war on Israel for 20 years. As well, Iran's stated goal was to wipe Israel off of the map, so to speak.
I agree. I don't mean to say that Iran wasn't aggressive to Israel, or that it didn't want to eliminate it. Just that this round of attacks was not initiated by them.
More broadly, this war was started by Iran.
The Iranian regime is a theocratic totalitarian dictatorship run by murderers and terrorists with no care for their own people. On the global freedom index, Iran scores only 11 out of 100 while Israel scores 74 out of 100. I have no love for Israel's current genocide-committing government, but perhaps every Iran-apologist should try and survive an Iranian prison for a while, just to experience what they stand for. Sometimes, it takes a beast to kill an even nastier one.
Lets put this another way:- why does Israel assume it has the right to demand Iran eliminate it's alleged progress towards a nuclear bomb when Israel already has undeclared illegal nuclear weapons and refuses to sign internation non proliferation treaties where as Iran has signed them all?
"Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons. Estimates of Israel's stockpile range between 90 and 400 nuclear warheads ... Israel has not signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), despite international pressure to do so.... Israel maintains a policy of deliberate ambiguity, never officially denying nor admitting to having nuclear weapons, instead repeating over the years that "Israel will not be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons to the Middle East". However, in November 2023, amid the Gaza war, the junior Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu publicly considered dropping a nuclear bomb over Gaza ... Israel is believed to have begun full-scale production of nuclear weapons following the 1967 Six-Day War, although it had built its first operational nuclear weapon by December 1966 ... "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapons_and_Israel
"Iran is not known to currently possess weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and has signed treaties repudiating the possession of WMD including the Biological Weapons Convention,[1] the Chemical Weapons Convention,[2] and the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction
Because Israel didn’t threaten any other country with annihilation, but Iran does threaten Israel with annihilation.
Great articule Tomás. But remember that Israel is in fact annihilating the country called Palestine. They dont even need to use their extremely dangerous nuclear weapons to do this. They are not threaten to do it, they are doing it as we speak.
I believe nor Irán or Israel should have nuclear weapons.
The state of palestine is a country, it is recognised a safe sovereign state. After decades of wars and violation of not just a few peace treaties but 300+ by israel, when they finally retaliate to take what's rightfully theirs, that's not "destroying the Jewish state" that's a right to self defence. Israel’s illegal occupation and this live genocide is what's "destroying the Palestinian state".
Yasser Arafat, glad he is no loner with us, was given everything he asked for in the 1990's peace deal but then walked away because he never wanted peace only perpetual fighting/conflict with the Jews. He was a terrible human being and a world class thief who stole billions from his people.
It's true that Arafat played a huge role in the Oslo Accords in the 1990s, where both sides made historic compromises. He recognized Israel, and Israel allowed limited Palestinian self-rule. But when the 2000 Camp David Summit came, Arafat walked away from a major offer that included most of the West Bank, Gaza, and even a capital in East Jerusalem.
A lot of people — including President Clinton — felt he missed a real chance at peace. Others argue the deal still had gaps on sensitive issues like refugees and full sovereignty over Jerusalem.
As for corruption — yes, after his death, investigations showed that billions in aid were mismanaged or stolen, while everyday Palestinians lived in poverty. So there’s no question that he had serious failings, both as a leader and in his decisions during the peace process.
But it’s also true that not all the blame lies with him. There were hardliners and extremists on both sides who worked to sabotage peace — and we’re still living with the fallout of that today.
Palestine is not a country. If you mean the Gaza strip, it is time to realize that its inhabitants, it existence, its infrastructure sole purpose was to be part of a multi-prong attack intended to destroy the Jewish State. It didn't work, and now the whole project is being dismantled.
Why do you rewrite history with such ignorant nonsense: "Palestine is not a country"? Yes it is, according the UN and most of the rest of the world. Such violent ignorance is why the Iranians are now going to eliminate Zionist Israel.
These are not remotely comparable. Palestine is not being threatened with elimination whereas Iran explicitly many times talks about wiping Israel off the face of the Earth - Death to Israel, Death to America. Yasser Arafat, glad he is no loner with us, was given everything he asked for in the 1990's peace deal but then walked away because he never wanted peace only perpetual fighting/conflict with the Jews. He was a terrible human being and a world class thief who stole billions from his people. Iran only wants nukes for one purpose and that is to terrorize Israel and its other Arab neighbors. If Israel did not have nukes they would have been invaded many times by other Arab nations by now. Israel has never threatened to annihilate another country.
True they never threatened to annihilate at all. They didn't talk about that, but surely showed it. Talk about their illegal expansion beyond what UN had proposed, talk about how they were a minority first who had captured more land than the Arab majority which was totally unfair to Arabs, even Rabin was killed by his right wing extremist, and Civil wars within palestine and israel. Even if leaders were ready enough, extremists from within sabotaged the peace which all lead to the downfall of the Oslo Accords.
Yes, and if Palestinians had the firepower to annihilate Israel (roles reversed) they would not hesitate to do so. Yet you expect Israel to not do the same? "Should" is all nice and all, and what we tell kiddies to do to behave, but in a struggle to the death, each group of people would much rather be alive than dead. Mind you, I am no fan of Israel. They are little different from South Africa when ruled by white supremacists. But I do live in reality.
Let's not forget the fact that they actually provided for them when they came as refugees, slowly capturing over their land. Even if Palestinians had the firepower, What would they annihilate Israel for unless israel itself had evil intentions ? Just because we can reverse roles, doesn't mean we can assume or come to a conclusion that that's what they'd do. Sure, hamas had not come to agreements on less than like 10 treaties, but Israel? It continued to break one after the other and so did palestine in defence of it. Leave that, after bombing and destroying the entire state with only a few remaining now, what's the use of bombing civilians now? During festivals? What about the sexual atrocities in children? That's what palestine would do? No. No Chance. Even their hostages were treated with care by Hamas.
A sovereign state*
Wakey wakey Tomas Pueyo: IRAN WAS'NT GOING TO ATTACK THE ZIONIST REGIME unless it attacked first, as noted (amongst thousand of recent news paper headlines globally) by Reuters a few weeks ago:-
"Iran threatens to annihilate Israel should it launch a major attack"
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-threatens-annihilate-israel-should-it-launch-major-attack-2024-04-23/
Before they'd even been admitted to the UN on 11 May 1949 as a full member state, the Zionist's have been blatantly scheming for centuries to provoke wars and conflict and death to non Jews and steal ALL the Palestinians' home land (see below).
So in fact Israel provoked it's own annihilation last week by attacking Iran first: in Spanish we call the claim that "Israel didn’t threaten any other country with annihilation" "caca del toro".
These sorts of repulsive Zionist's lies to support their childish “victim mentality” and their blatant provocations have been going on for at least the last 80 years or so:-
• 1945 October 24 --- United Nations (UN) was officially formed.
• 1947 November 29 --- United Nations adopted Resolution 181 (II) recommending the adoption and implementation of a plan of partition of Palestine and the creation of independent Arab and Jewish States in the British Mandate of Palestine. The Arab state was to have a territory of 11,100 square kilometres or 42%, the Jewish state a territory of 14,100 square kilometres or 56%, while the remaining 2%—comprising the cities of Jerusalem, Bethlehem and the adjoining area—would become an international zone. The vote was rejected by the Arab parties, who refused to allow their land to be stolen from them, and was immediately followed by a civil war between Palestinian Arabs who were supported by the Arab Liberation Army against the Palestinian Jews, while the region was still fully under British rule.
• 1947 November 30 --- Small-scale local skirmishes began and gradually escalated until March 1948. When the violence started, Palestinians had already begun fleeing, expecting to return after the war.
• 1947 December 18 --- massacres at Al-Khisas by the the Palmach the main paramilitary organization of the Yishuv (pre-1948 Jewish community in Palestine) during the period of the British Mandate.
• 1947 December 30 --- The Haifa Oil Refinery massacre took place on in Mandatory Palestine, when 39–41 Jewish refinery workers were killed by their Arab coworkers in a mass lynching. The massacre was a response to an Irgun terrorist attack (a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated in Mandatory Palestine between 1931 and 1948), where grenades were thrown into a crowd of about 100 day-labourers waiting at a bus stop outside the main gate of the then British-owned Haifa Oil Refinery. Six Arabs were killed and 42 were wounded.[6] Minutes after the Irgun attack, Arab refinery workers and others began attacking the Jewish refinery workers, resulting in 39–41 deaths and 49 injuries, before the British Army and Palestine Police units arrived to put an end to the violence.
• 1947 December 31 --- massacres at Balad al-Shaykh was the killing of a large number of Palestinians by the Haganah in the village of Balad al-Shaykh during the early stages of the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine. It was one of the largest, and earliest, massacres during the 1948 Palestine war. Between 60 and 70 Arab villagers were killed in the attack, which was conducted as a retaliation to the Haifa Oil Refinery massacre.
• 1948 March --- between 70,000 and 100,000 Palestinians, mostly middle- and upper-class urban elites, were expelled or fled.
• 1948 March 10 to early April --- Plan Dalet finalized and launched : a large-scale offensive to capture land and empty it of Palestinian Arabs, in which Zionist forces shifted to an offensive strategy. It was a set of guidelines to take control of Mandatory Palestine, declare a Jewish state, and defend its borders and people, including the Jewish population outside of the borders, "before, and in anticipation of" the invasion by regular Arab armies. It specifically included gaining control of areas wherever Yishuv populations existed, including those outside the borders of the Jewish state.
• 1948 May 14 --- Israeli Declaration of Independence ending the British Mandate of Palestine causing the surrounding Arab states – Egypt, Transjordan, Iraq and Syria – to invade what had just ceased to be Mandatory Palestine, and immediately attacked Israeli forces and several Jewish settlements. The conflict thus escalated and became the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The 1948 war ended with Israeli forces imposing ethnic cleansing of Palestine by controlling approximately 78 percent of historical Palestine.
• 1949 May 11 --- Israel was admitted to the United Nations (UN) as a full member state.
• 1953 --- Israel committed the most notorious reprisal massacre in the West Bank against the village of Qibya, where 45 houses were blown up and at least 69 Palestinians were killed.
• 1967 --- In a war with Egypt, Jordan and Syria, known as the 1967 War, or the June War, Israel delivered what came to be known as the “Naksa”, meaning setback or defeat, to the armies of the neighbouring Arab countries, and to the Palestinians who lost all what remained of their homeland. Israel absorbed the whole of historical Palestine, as well as additional territory from Egypt and Syria. By the end of the war, Israel had expelled another 300,000 Palestinians from their homes, including 130,000 who were displaced in 1948, and gained territory that was three and a half times its size. The Zionist then ignored UN resolution 242 calling for Israeli withdrawal and return of the land they'd stolen from the Palestinians.
1974 November 22 --- United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3236 recognized the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, national independence and sovereignty in Palestine, again completely ignored by the Zionists.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1947%E2%80%931948_civil_war_in_Mandatory_Palestine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_Dalet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakba#The_1948_Nakba
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Khisas_raid
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killings_and_massacres_during_the_1948_Palestine_war
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2018/6/4/the-naksa-how-israel-occupied-the-whole-of-palestine-in-1967
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_242
In other words the Israeli Zionists violently stole 100% the Palestinians' home land rather than the 56% allotted to them under the 1947 UN resolution.
Unsurprisingly the locals were a bit pissed off have been trying to fight off the colonial Zionist scum thieves who'd been grooming the Jews with their corrupt ideology since at least 1897 when Theodor Herzl publish his disgusting work. Indeed the Jews have been pressing to invade other countries for centuries before then, at least back to 1564.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Zionism
International politics are not about morality, or "who has the right" to do anything. That is a poor lens to understand reality. If X and Y are enemies, and X has a military advantage over Y, it will try to maintain that advantage, while Y will try to shorten it. That explains both Iran's nuclear program and Israel's attack. What did you expect, for Israel's leadership to say "ok, since we have it, let's let them have it as well because they have a right to it"? That would have been extremely foolish
International politics are not about morality, or "who has the right" to do anything. If X has a military advantage over Y, it will try to maintain that advantage, and Y will try to shorten it. That explains both Iran's nuclear program and Israel's attack. What did you expect, for Israel's leadership to say "ok, since we have it, let's let thel have it because they have a right to it"? That would have been extremely foolish
Try reading something that challenges your completely deluded propaganda.
Scott Ritter (former UN weapons Inspector)
Prof Seyed Mohammad Marandi (Iran)
Larry Johnson (former CIA analyst)
Prof Micheal Hudson
Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson
Prof Jeffery Sachs
Prof Richard Wolff
Pepe Escobar (independent analyst Journalist)
Ben Norton (independent analyst Journalist)
Craig Murray (former UK ambassador)
simplicius the thinker
Thierry Meyssan https://www.voltairenet.org/
https://scheerpost.com/
https://www.indianpunchline.com/
Natasha, could you suggest some specific articles/reports to read by these?
Thanks for asking, depends on what specific topics you want to know more about. I'd start with reading Thierry Meyssan type in your search word (top right of page):-
https://www.voltairenet.org/?lang=en
Is you like watching & listening, Dialogue Works is very good:-
https://www.youtube.com/@dialogueworks01
And do a search on Prof Jeffery Sachs for some of his recent written and video out put too.
I love your writing. But I'm surprised to see a source for you is a Twitter writer with 100 followers. Curious why this seemed sufficient to you?
Depends. Which one? I quote many Twitter sources
This has got me curious - do you have a post somewhere about your research process for your articles? I'm always impressed with the vast amount of sources you cite and I'm generally curious how you find, vet, and mold the information from your sources into your articles
Iran’s land area is 80x Israel.
Israel’s GDP is 20% higher than Iran’s GDP.
Israel’s per capita GDP is 10x Iran’s.
If Iran had spent billions of rials on improving the lives of their citizens rather than building a nuclear weapon and arming proxies with a goal of annihilating Israel their country and the world would both be in a better place.
I was nodding my head along to most of this: nuclear threat, yep. Two clear goals for this war, yep. Missile strikes on nuclear facilities and targeted assassinations, yep. Then I got down to this quote allegedly from Israeli defense minister Katz and my blood ran cold:
"Katz says Israel must bring about 'a mass evacuation of the population from Tehran, in order to destabilize the regime and increase deterrence.'"
UHHHH. That escalated quickly. A mass evacuation like they did in Gaza?
I broadly support Israel, but I don't think their recent approach in Gaza has been either necessary or humane. Repeating it in Tehran would be another tragedy. It would also be the farthest thing from deterrence. I understand that hatred for Israel is not limited to the Iranian government but also represented among the people due to indoctrination. However, it's not as widespread in Iran as in Gaza, yet. A mass evacuation of Tehran would change that for the worse. It would change from shallow, party-line dislike to deep, personal trauma. And whatever new government comes to power would have the perfect rallying cry of vengeance with which to collect support.
Let's hope Katz is either misrepresenting his plan for political purposes, or gets stymied by cooler heads.
I do not care for the leadership of Israel, who are committing war crimes aplenty. But I do understand that they will take any steps they deem required to ensure Israel's survival. Actually, I expect them to go brutally overboard. Golda Meir said Israelis would rather be alive with a bad image than dead and pitied. They will indeed be alive and hated.
> has recently been weeks to months away from developing a nuclear weapon.
Why are you blindly repeating Israeli propaganda? Why should Iran not have a nuclear weapons if Israel, the most aggressive terror state on this planet, has them?
Because Israel doesn’t threaten Iran with annihilation, but Iran threatens Israel with annihilation.
Right, threats are much more dangerous than actions.
Threats backed up with funding to at least 3 major organizations that regularly attack Israel.
I'm not in favor of starting this hot wat when negotiations were still being held but you're delusional if you think these were just paper threats.
At least there is an illusion to be had, whereas there is no question regarding Israel's genocidal qualities. Yet you don't seem to have a problem with its possession of nuclear weapons.
Repost:
"Should" is all nice and all, and what we tell kiddies to do to behave, but in a struggle to the death, each group of people would much rather be alive than dead. Mind you, I am no fan of Israel. They are little different from South Africa when ruled by white supremacists. But I do live in reality.
Why celebrate death and destruction in Iran, while ignoring the fact that Israel has already built a nuclear bomb? Hundreds of nuclear warheads, most likely. Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty; Israel is not.
I do not celebrate it. Death is awful. Where do you see celebration of death in Iran?
But just as the military leadership of Japan before WWII brought about mass death and destruction of their country by their actions, so now is the theocratic leadership of Iran doing so.
Thanks for reminding everybody that the US is the only country to have dropped nuclear bombs on entire cities and started the nuclear arms race. You may not be celebrating, but you are justifying.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_program_of_Iran
Iran has been enriching uranium for decades, so by now it should have nuclear weapon possibilities. The fact that it suspended its nuclear weapons program in 2003 does not mean it actually stopped further enrichment. That, and the fact that it cleared out its Fordow facility a few days ago leads me to think it is well capable to produce nuclear weapons.
The only threat Iran, Hamas or others pose to Israel is ending the exclusion of 40% of the population. The Israel enclave especially its software engineering and IDF has resources to reintegrate the country with citizenship and participation by all. Protecting Hebrews and Hebrew culture along with others isn’t rocket science, it’s called constitutional checks and balances on tyranny of majority. Until now Israel has chosen instead exclusion, terror and wars and as this article accurately concludes that has gotten to the point of needing permanent war against neighbors. This puts Israel in a weak position and likely will lead to regime change. Israel can torment Iran from the air but has no ground capacity. The US has less ground capacity in Iran than Iraq, which it lost. Nuclear weapons are mostly irrelevant to the Iran war and the larger conflict to end partition of the Land of Jerusalem because Israel is well armed with nuclear weapons and no number of Iranian nuclear bombs would degrade that capability. Israel is dependent on the American shield, communications, air and naval forces threat that so far has kept Saudi, Egypt and Turkiye neutral. Iran is resilient and most likely will shoulder bombardment. The demographics are overwhelmingly, economies are rising and sooner or later aspirant leaders will come to the region powers, Arab, Turkic, Hebrew and Persian, and deconflict and stabilize the region. That achievement could mark the end of clientelism to foreign major powers that has reigned since the disintegration of Pax Ottoman. Iran today represents the future of self ruled Middle East.
I think the world was broadly concerned about Iran having nuclear weapons. Their statements to the desired elimination of Israel and “ The great satan” are unique. If the US bombings are “one and done”, I think it will be viewed positively. Iran is sending missiles into civilian areas. Israel (if media is honest) is not.
To the extent we can see further Abraham accords develop and a general calming of things in the Middle East, it seems unlikely that Iran will see any logic in continuing the fight. If Israel will stop its attacks and let peace develop, tensions will subside. At some point, if Iran can rejoin the global economy, it could be the best environment since 1979. Here’s hoping.
> Iran is sending missiles into civilian areas. Israel (if media is honest) is not.
Not even the most biased media is trying to hide the fact that Israel bombed densely populated areas of Tehran to take out high ranking officials, yet here you are claiming Israel isn't targeting civilian areas. I hope you're simply ignorant and not getting paid to spread these lies.
It seems to me that, if Israel’s goal is to stop Iran from ever acquiring nuclear weapons, then regime change and full-scale invasion are the only effective options. Just hitting nuclear sites isn’t enough—they can and probably will be rebuilt again. And it’s hard to imagine Iran genuinely giving up its ambitions and sticking to non-proliferation, more so after this attack.
But the reality is, Israel doesn’t have the capacity to invade Iran or bring about regime change. It will probably push the U.S. to get involved, but that kind of intervention seems extremely unlikely given the current administration.
In the end, this attack may do more harm than good. It’s likely to deepen resentment in Iran, fuel long-term hostility, and make the region even less stable.
So you meant
Not Deeper hostility
Same long term resentment
Same stability in the region
That makes more sense.
Please describe:
Deeper hostility
More fueled long term resentment
Less stability in the region
I can't picture any of those.
I'm not sure what there is to describe? Hostility and resentment are self-explanatory, less stability means that Iran will continue to target Israel.
Perhaps you care to explain why you can't picture any of those?
The region has been in a hellish stalemate for decades. Sometimes you just have to make a decision to act. I think that's why Israel is being so thorough in Gaza as well. Enough is enough.
Ah yes, nothing better than to thoroughly spring clean an area of undesirable humans, right?
Enlighten us, how exactly will this thorough cleansing solve the situation? I'm sure after everything is nice and clean the remaining Palestinians will love Israel, right?
Clean out Hamas from Gaza. It's then the Palestinians decision if they want to live in peace.
I wrote something similar here!
https://kainesianmacro.substack.com/p/the-lion-the-ayatollah-and-the-oil