Israel, Iran, the UK: and the killing continues in Gaza

JVL Introduction

Israel’s attack on Iran – and also Iran’s retaliation – has pushed Gaza off the agenda for now.  The killings continue while Israel blocked the internet for many hours.  Israel has also imposed a complete lock down on the West Bank, those big yellow gates firmly shut on every road and track dramatically limiting movement between towns and villages. Was the attack partly to distract the world from the genocide?

Does Israel think that those of us who are opposed to the Iran regime will consider they deserved the attack by Israel?  Will those of us who want no nuclear weapons consider Israel’s attack justified in preventing another country to have them?  Clearly this would be nonsense and if I was Iranian, I would be asking why is the regime I have to live under considered so much worse than those of the USA, UK, Russia, France, China, India, Pakistan and Israel?  The double standards are palpable. Israel has never officially declared its nuclear weapons – but it is an open secret that they have at least 50 and possibly as many as 400.  Iran, for all its faults, has signed the non proliferation treaty and also accepts inspection by the Independent Atonic Energy Agency (IAEA), which Israel does not. The IAEA is shocked at Israel hitting nuclear targets; here is a link to their Director General’s Statement to UNSC on Situation in Iran. One of many areas of concern is that “due to the impacts, there is radiological and chemical contamination inside the facilities in Natanz”.

According to WikiLeaks US intelligence assessed weeks ago that Iran is NOT building a nuclear weapon and there has been no authorisation from Iran’s leader to restart the programme that he suspended in 2003.

The western media seems to happily use Israel’s terminology that their attack on Iran was “pre-emptive” rather than, say “unprovoked”.   The writer calls on the western governments but, shamefully, not only is the UK government failing to condemn Israel’s actions but is sending More UK jets to the Middle East. Within that article, Starmer is quoted as saying: “In relation to Israel, I had a good and constructive discussion with Prime Minister Netanyahu yesterday, and that included discussions about the safety and security of Israel, as you would expect, between two allies” .

LL

This article was originally published by The Guardian on Fri 13 Jun 2025. Read the original here.