Israel launches bloody assault on Iran with US backing

Israel has launched a massive series of strikes against Iran, extending its bloody footprint across the Middle East and threatening to ignite a major regional war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened further waves of attacks as Iran begins retaliating, hitting Tel Aviv.

As with Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the US is backing Israel to the hilt. Trump and Netanyahu had discussions before Israel’s attacks and Trump has bragged that the US provided the military hardware to Israel, calling the military strike, “excellent.”

This is yet another graphic demonstration of Israel’s unrestrained military aggression as it continues to bomb Lebanon, Syria and Yemen and steps up its genocide in Gaza and the West Bank.

Trump has been in negotiations with Iran for a deal over its nuclear program. He tore up the previous agreement, signed under Barack Obama’s administration, in 2018, saying he wanted to impose “maximum pressure” on Iran.

Trump admitted on social media that he had “told” Iran there would be a massive military strike if it didn’t give in to his demands. The US reportedly rushed 300 additional Hellfire missiles to Israel ahead of the attack.

Iran has had a nuclear power program since the 1950s. In March, US director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard admitted that US intelligence officials had concluded Iran was not working to build a nuclear bomb and had never restarted a nuclear weapons project dismantled in 2003.

But Netanyahu has been pushing for years for military strikes against Iranian nuclear sites. Israel is armed with at least 90 nuclear warheads but hypocritically demands that no other state in the region can be allowed to acquire them.

Yet Israel’s attack has gone far beyond targeting nuclear sites. It also assassinated a series of senior Iranian military leaders, including the head of its armed forces Mohammad Bagheri and the leader of its elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Hossein Salami.

Iran’s UN ambassador said 78 people were killed and 320 were wounded in the initial wave of attacks. Densely populated areas in Iran’s capital Tehran were hit, as Israel targeted residential apartment towers.

Samira, a resident in northern Tehran, told Middle East Eye it was a miracle she had survived, “Both my husband and I were thrown from our bed. The explosions didn’t stop. We had no idea what was happening”.

Covert Mossad operations inside Iran attempted to cripple Iranian air defences so that Israel could bomb targets at will. It also targeted ballistic missile facilities in an effort to reduce Iran’s capacity to respond.

The US and Israel are determined to inflict as much damage on Iran as possible while Iran’s allies in the region remain weakened. Israel’s onslaught against Hezbollah in Lebanon last year has left it unwilling to renew any conflict with Israel.

US attack dog

The US has never forgiven Iran for the revolution in 1979 that removed one of the US’s most loyal servants, the Shah of Iran.

The attack on Iran shows how Israel’s aggression serves the interests of US imperialism. Once again Israel is acting as an attack dog for US interests, staging aggressive military action the US would prefer not to launch itself.

Since October 2023, Israel has launched wars all across the region, repeatedly bombing Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iran. It has seized control of more territory in Syria following the fall of the Assad regime in December and significantly weakened Iranian influence through dealing blows to its proxies like Hezbollah.

All this has served US interests through weakening opponents of US imperialism. Now it hopes to deal Iran an even deeper blow.

The US arms Israel as a dependable ally that can be used to discipline any state in the region that defies it. But Israel also has its own interests in continuing the genocide and dispossession of the Palestinians. At times, Israel strains at the leash of its master, pushing for actions that threaten to destabilise the surrounding Arab rulers and pull the US directly into new wars.

Israel is rarely willing to openly defy the US. This is the barbaric relationship between the US and Israel that has played out in the latest round of Israeli aggression: Israel extends its control over historic Palestine, while the US entrenches its place as the major imperialist power in the region.

The onslaught on Iran is designed to humble a state that challenges the dominance of US power. All through Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the rulers of the Arab states including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan have failed to lift a finger to oppose Israel.

Egypt has just used its police and security forces to block the Global March to Gaza, which aimed to deliver aid to the starving and besieged Palestinian population.

Iran’s response to the genocide has also been limited. But it has given support to opponents of Israel including Hezbollah, the Houthis and Hamas and stated its opposition to Israel and US imperialism.

For decades, the US has imposed sanctions on Iran and called for the overthrow of the regime.

Trump imposed further economic sanctions after 2018 that dealt a major blow to Iran’s economy, with unemployment and inflation surging.

Iran’s military capacity to strike targets inside Israel has been limited so far. It has hit some areas in Tel Aviv but Israel, with support once again from the US, has intercepted most of its missiles.

The Zionist state was founded on the bloody dispossession of the Palestinians. It is again unleashing death and destruction in an unrestrained act of aggression.

The failure of Western leaders, including Anthony Albanese, to impose serious sanctions on Israel have let it believe it can act with impunity.

Despite the butchery of the last 18 months and Israel’s latest atrocity, the fight for Palestine is growing. Hundreds of thousands have demonstrated in London and Rome in recent weeks. Demonstrations erupted in Paris after Israel intercepted the Freedom Flotilla boat carrying Greta Thunberg and a French MP. Teachers in France and Greece are striking for Palestine next Tuesday.

We need to step up demands for Albanese to impose full sanctions on weapons exports and military trade with Israel, and close Pine Gap. The ACTU’s call for sanctions needs to be turned into action. And we need to keep fighting to end Israeli apartheid and free Palestine from the river to the sea.

By James Supple

Magazine

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