Israel And America Want To Drag Iran Into Gaza Conflict To Get Greater Political And Diplomatic Leverage
By
New Age Islam Staff Writer
13 April
2024
The US Has
Always Called Iran The Axis Of Evil.
Main
Points:
1. Most
terrorist attacks have been carried out by US-Saudi backed Sunni terrorist
outfits.
2. Iran's
commander Qasim Soleimani actually fought US-backed ISIL, Al Qaida etc.
3. 9/11
attackers were from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE and Lebanon.
4. All 9/11
attackers were Sunni.
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Iranian
‘bogey’ in Palestine conflict
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Mr
Bhopinder Singh takes a look at the Israel-Hamas war from a realistic point of
view. He rightly points out the hypocrisy of the US in dealing with the
terrorist organisations active in the middle east and in handling the Gaza
conflict and crisis.
The US has
always looked at Iran as its arch enemy because it has not kowtowed before the
US policy in the middle east and has stood in the way of its economic and
military interests in the mid-east.
The US has
designated Iran the Axis of Evil with its allies Hezbollah and Houthis
but ignores the fact that most of the terrorist acts were committed by Sunni
militant and terrorist organisations like ISIL, Al Qaida etc. None of the 11
terrorists involved in 9/ 11 was Sunni. They were from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt
and Lebanon.
In fact,
Iran has been at war with these Sunni terrorist organisations active in Syria
and Iraq. The Arabs have not supported the cause of Palestine. Hamas is a Sunni
outfit which did not get the support of Arab countries . Iran supported it
despite sectarian differences. During the Israel- Hamas war, Iran and its Shia
allies Hezbollah and Houthis provided military support to Hamas which made a
lot of difference to Israel while the oil rich Arab countries sat back in their
comfort zone and watch the televised genocide in Gaza. Thanks to Iran's
military support to Hamas, Israel could not crush Hamas even after 6 months of
continued bombardment
Therefore,
Israel started hitting Iran to deter it from supporting Hamas and Hezbollah. It
carried out a number of strikes on Iran's military and diplomatic personnel and
killed about a dozen military and diplomatic officers within the last two
months.
Two
terrorist attacks have also been carried out inside Iran by the US-Israel
backed ISIS within the last few weeks. The objective behind attacks on Iran seemed
to be provoking Iran to enter into a direct conflict with Israel so that the US
and Israel get the justification to attack Iran's nuclear sites in the name of
self defence.
The US had
imposed sanctions on Iran to halt its nuclear programme. Israel sees Iran's
nuclear programme as a threat to its survival. Iran's direct involvement in the
Gaza war will also compel the Sunni Arab countries to further back out with
whatever moral support they have been extending to the, Palestinians.
The US had
also been criticising Israel for its mishandling of the Palestine war. The US
had even talked tough with Netanyahu for killing aid workers and had threatened
to stop military help to him. But as Iran threatened to attack Israel, the US
again reiterated its 'iron clad' military support to Israel. This statement was
a morale booster for Israel.
Therefore,
if Iran really attacks Israel, the US and UK will jump to defend Israel giving
strength to it. On 7th April, Israel had withdrawn all its brigades except one
from Gaza strip and had got drubbing from Hamas after that.
In this
scenario, Iran 's entry into the war will benefit Israel. Iran has also read
the possible outcome and therefore decided to keep striking Israel through its
proxies, particularly Hezbollah. Recently, Hezbollah has intensified attacks on
Israel and may continue to help Hezbollah to provide military support to
inflict greater damage to Israel indirectly.
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Iranian
‘Bogey’ In Palestine Conflict
By
Bhopinder Singh
10 April 2024
Israeli
Prime Minister Netanyahu aims to broaden the scope of the conflict by involving
Iran, leveraging the negative perceptions of Iranians in the West
For
decades, US-Israel has consistently blamed Iran for most of the terror attacks,
even when actual participants have hailed from countries and organisations
inimical to Iran. For example, the nationalities of the 19 hijackers of the
9/11 attack were 15 from Saudi Arabia, 2 from the United Arab Emirates and 1
each from Egypt and Lebanon. All were non-Iranians or even non-Shias — each
from a country then known to be staunch allies of the United States of America.
Yet within months of the attacks, then US President George Bush had gone on to
coin the phrase ‘axis of evil’ including the troika of Iran, Iraq and North
Korea.
Historical
and irreconcilable antipathy between a Shia extremist Iran and between Sunni
supremacist forces like Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaida was always conveniently
ignored. The fact that most turf wars (earlier and current), be it in the
unforgiving swathes of Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria are played out between
sectarian and ideological proxies from either of the two distinct sides, has
also been ignored.
A creative
and often unconvincing conflation of the two historically-at-war forces by somehow
linking with specious details of the so-called Iran ‘hand’ whenever there was a
terror attack on assets and personnel of the ‘Western’ bloc (read,
US-Israel-Sheikhdoms), was always insisted. The fact that Iran and its proxy
Shia militias led by the likes of General Qasim Soleimani were at the forefront
of taking on forces like ISIL, Al Qaida and other Sunni militias, has been
successfully obliterated in larger imagination.
However,
while Iran and its co-sectarian proxies like Hezbollah in Lebanon or Houthis in
Yemen were naturally pitted against the rival Arab/Sunni forces (sovereign or
otherwise) — the disproportionate demonising of Iran with its supposed role in
terrorism, almost instinctively led to blaming Iran for all problems whilst
overlooking the pernicious role played by the Sheikhdoms in breeding violent
forces that were to go their way or even rogue e.g., Al Qaida or ISIL. The
much-vilified Iran felt slighted and retained its belligerent posture and
rhetoric against the ‘West’ which somehow was then used by the ‘West’ to prove
its over-creative accusations against Iran. It became an endless circle of
blame game and by owning the ‘monopoly on truth’, Iran was persistently
fingered and accused of doing things that it did do and also for things that it
probably didn’t do!
Perhaps the
only predominantly Sunni militia in the Middle East that has retained a modicum
of support from the Iranians has been the Palestinian Hamas — they, have
overlooked the sectarian angularity in favour of practicality by accepting
Iranian support as the Sheikhdoms had virtually abandoned the Palestinian cause
(after legitimising, normalising and formalising relations with Israel) and it
was left to Tehran to support a virtually forgotten Hamas which was left to
fend for itself. But realistically Iran’s leverage on Hamas is not expected to
be like the sort of substantial leverage it has on forces like Hezbollah,
Houthis et al. Many independent experts have commented on the ignorance of
Iranian authorities in the planning of the 7th October attack on Israel — the
difference between ‘support’ and ‘leverage’ is key in understanding the Iranian
control over Hamas. So, Iran does support Hamas, but it is highly unlikely that
it was privy to the attack plans in Israel, as so secret was the operation that
not only was the famed Israeli intelligence caught by complete surprise, but so
were many of Hamas operatives themselves. Yet much like the instinctive
name-calling of Iran as the principal enemy for everything that goes wrong in the
Middle East, Israelis left no stone unturned to blame the Iranians, squarely.
In recent
times, beyond the rhetorical sabre-rattling by Iran’s actual proxy i.e.,
Hezbollah and the odd firing of rockets and gunfire (not exactly the opening of
a front), both Hezbollah and Iranians have confined themselves to verbosity as
opposed to any major military action.
But the
Israelis have way gone beyond pulverising the Gaza Strip killing an
unprecedented 30,000 Gazans, attacking NGO-Aid personnel with impunity and now
even hitting the Iranian consulate building in Syria’s capital, Damascus.
Two senior
Iranian commanders of the Quds Force along with at least 9 others have been
killed. Most likely these Iranian forces would have been involved in
overlooking and supporting operations in the Syrian theatre along with forces
of Syrian President, Bashir al Assad (a co-sectarian ally) against forces of
disparate militias from the same fount that germinated ISIL, Al Qaida etc., But
like in the killing of the legendary Iranian General Suleiman Qasimi, even this
time the Israelis insisted on the rote like that they had, “been behind many
attacks on Israeli and American assets and had plans for additional attacks”.
More likely
than not, an increasingly isolated (externally and internally) Israeli Prime
Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is seeking to expand the conflict contours by
drawing in Iran as the Iranians remain the favourite ‘bogey’ that elicits
negative reactions amongst most Jews and Americans, irrespective of their partisan
loyalties. Strangely, it legitimises Netanyahu’s disproportionate belligerence
and missteps by deflecting blame games from himself by taking on the Iranians,
who were not exactly the primary participants. It is an age-old invocation of a
formula of convenience and half-truths.
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Bhopinder Singh, a military veteran, is a former
Lt Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Puducherry. The views
expressed are personal)
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-west/israel-america-iran-gaza-political-diplomatic/d/132129
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