The Middle East Facing a Tempest

ISRAEL SHAMIR • JANUARY 31, 2023

 https://www.unz.com/ishamir/the-middle-east-facing-a-tempest/

Iran, a member of the Axis of Evil, has been attacked by the Forces of Good. Will it come to the Third World War? We shall see. But now from the beginning.

After the recent elections, Bibi Netanyahu had formed his sixth government after one-and-a-half-year break and Israelis opposing Bibi began a street revolt against the new government. They took a leaf from the Ukraine-2014 book, and created a Maidan in Tel Aviv, with up to a hundred thousand citizens gathering in neighbourhood squares every Sabbath. The would-be-revolutionaries are similar to US Democrats, while the government supporters remind us of US Republicans. To complicate the comparison further, note that Israeli Jews predominantly support US Republicans, and US Jews vote for the Dems. Yet this colour revolution on the streets and squares of Tel Aviv is a pro-American revolt (as is usual for colour revolutions). And US Dems, with their Israeli analogues are used to winning their revolutions, by whatever means necessary.

The new government has declared a plan for legal reform, directly confronting the Judicial Branch which has historically dominated the Executive Branch in Israel. Israeli judges do not like strong men, and often torpedo their measures. High Court judges are elected by other judges, and the High Court can overturn any Parliamentary or Government decision. In Israel, there is the additional ethnic tension between European (Ashkenazi) Jews and Oriental (Sephardic) Jews. All of them are against the Palestinians – with exception of the Communists. It would be a mistake to consider some of them being on the Left. There is practically no Left in Israel. This title has been seized by the gender-obsessed lesbians of Tel Aviv. As for Israeli men, they choose between Rightist or Far-Rightist.

Bibi Netanyahu is greatly disliked by many, but the majority still votes for him.

His enemies hope to use their tame judges to send Netanyahu to jail for some terrible crime, like receiving a box of cigars from a friendly Hollywood producer.

Meanwhile they have derailed Arye Der’i, the minister of Interior. They think he does not deserve to be a minister. Bibi plans to enact a law that will strip the courts of their powers to bar a minister, or even to deal with their persons. The government coalition intends to enact the law Do Not Touch Der’i. But Bibi is even more worried about himself.

He thinks the judges will remove him from office and send him to jail. To defend himself he has decided to stir up the Iranians. Bibi has long record of poking Iran. Years ago he presented a drawing of an Iranian nuclear bomb – to the amusement of the world. After that, he fought against the nuclear deal between the US and Iran. Over the years, he has tried to convince each US President to bomb Iran – after his own generals refused to undertake the enterprise. Now he sends some drones over to bomb an Isfahan installation, hoping it will incite an Iranian response and unite people of Israel behind him.

The Iranians have not responded, yet. As long as Israel does not officially admit the act of war, one can expect any Iranian response to be similarly deniable, as it has been all the previous times. To be sure they knew that Israel destroyed Iranian trucks along the Syrian border, yet Iran refused to be drawn in. Israeli aggression is sanctioned by the US, and the US is still too strong to be effectively retaliated against by Iran – or even by Russia, a country with feeling of friendship to Iran. The US spends more money on defence than all the rest of mankind, and it still packs a punch. To add insult to injury, the bottomless military budget does not hurt the pocketbooks of American citizens; they just add it to their debt.

Recently a Jewish gentleman-of-the-press, Mr Bret Stephens, unfavourably compared Mr Netanyahu to Mr Zelensky, in an article called A Tale of Two Jewish Leaders, in NY Times. Unfortunately, his case fails when it is confronted with reality. Mr Zelensky pulled the Ukraine into war with Russia. He caused more than half of its population to leave the country. He is leading the Ukraine into economic collapse and military defeat.

On the other hand, Bibi Netanyahu has been cautious and prudent with his country. One obvious difference is that Zelensky has deliberately dragged the Ukraine into unconditional war against Russia, while Netanyahu has repeatedly scored political points against Iran without committing to his people to total war. Now, inspired by Bret Stephens and other media figures, Bibi has been driven to openly attacking Iran.

Neocons may love Israel, but they dream of the Jewish state fighting on the front lines of the American Empire. Netanyahu’s current problem is that he wants to keep his friendship with Russia, and the Neocons will not allow him that. Indeed, today the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the new Israeli government said he intends to visit Kiev immediately. Israel has been a consistent supporter of Ukrainian ambitions. The previous government led by Mr Bennett and Mr Lapid sent 500 war advisers to help the Ukrainian army, and it was openly hostile to Putin.

Russia has condemned in the strongest terms the US/Israeli attack on Iran. Russia considers the US to be the primary instigator of the two. This is by no means certain – Bibi has had a long time feud with Iran. Still, the prudent Mr Netanyahu has avoided open warfare. Yet now it seems he would go to war so that American Neocons might approve of him.

Meanwhile the Palestinian front is warming up. It is not obvious whether the Third Intifada (uprising) has begun, but it is certainly not far away. For a long time, the Palestinians have been left alone but not at peace. They are murdered by the defence forces at an average of one or two per day, each day. And then there was the Israeli attack on the Jenin refugee camp with its ten victims. The Palestinians responded with three attacks in Jerusalem; ten Israelis were killed. Although the attack in Jenin passed without any comments, the counter-attack in Jerusalem awoke President Biden to condemnation. He said, “This was an attack against the civilized world.” The initial Israeli attack was not even mentioned. Israeli atrocities do not bother the civilised world.

In a relatively new development, one of the counter-attacks in Jerusalem was ascribed to “a terrorist, 13”. Yes, a thirteen-year-old boy was called “a terrorist”, and was killed on the spot. But seven children of his age were killed last month, and 34 last year.

The raid on Jenin was probably a stunt by the new government. The Palestinians did not join in the demonstrations against Netanyahu. They reasonably thought that these political struggles are an internal Jewish affair. But the extreme Nationalists in the government, Mr Smotrich and Mr Ben-Gvir, have wanted for a long time to implement a Final Solution for the Palestinian Problem; whether to kill them or to transfer them abroad. This is probably the reason behind the recent rise of anti-Palestinian violence, and the current wave of victims can be laid at their doorstep.

Ben-Gvir and Smotrich fit right into the Ukrainian adventure. They are typical Banderites. They are chickenhawks who might join the Azov regiment any time. They are doing their best to destroy the myth that “Jews can’t be Nazis”. They certainly talk the talk, and the rhetoric is becoming ever more extreme. Yet the difference between them and ordinary Israelis is minor. These two want to ruin villages and starve people, but many other members of Knesset will agree to it. The adversaries of Netanyahu care about preserving the High Court with its privileges, and what happens to the Palestinians makes no difference to them.

Probably things won’t change in the Middle East until the US debt is called, and the US dollar ceases to act as an international mean of payment. Here’s hoping that it will come soon. Just recently, Mohammed Al-Jadaan told Bloomberg TV in Davos that “There are no issues with discussing how we settle our trade arrangements, whether it is in the US dollar, whether it is the euro, whether it is the Saudi riyal.” The end of Israeli Apartheid and US global domination may be closer than you think!

With help of Paul Bennett