Is this a war to remake the Middle East?
JVL Introduction
The USA has always wanted a compliant Middle East, not least for access to oil. Iran has failed to be compliant since the downfall of the Shah – who was, of course, put in place against the democratically elected leader who had the temerity to nationalise Iran’s oil much to the fury of British Petroleum, for example. Because it is not only the USA and certainly not only Trump coming out in support of Israel’s attack (aka “right to defend itself” – even when it has not been attacked).
Iran has been calling since 1974 for a nuclear free Middle East but this is obviously too much for Israel. Most people do not want nuclear weapons and yet, despite the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty which Iran, without nuclear weapons has signed and Israel with nuclear weapons has not, more and more powerful nuclear weapons are being produced. I certainly want there to be no nuclear weapons but I do question why it is OK for Israel (and for the USA, France, UK, India, Pakistan, China, North Korea and Russia) but not Iran? Are none of these considered rogue states – or rather ‘regimes’?
Netanyahu urged Iranians to rise up against their leaders; in so doing, he made one of the most arrogant statements claiming that “Israel was defending civilisation against barbarism”! Iranians, however much they oppose the current government do not want their country bombed. The legacy of supposed attempts to bomb people into democracy give them no hope of that working.
LL
This article was originally published by Security in Context on Thu 19 Jun 2025. Read the original here.
Western governments are lying to their people about Israel’s attack on Iran. This is a war to ‘remake’ the Middle East
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Another thought-provoking piece from Mandy Turner, demonstrating the continuity between current and past actions of both Israel and the US. Netanyahu and Trump are not freakish outliers but gloves-off representatives of the true nature of the states they lead.
The Trump administration has now forced Tulsi Gabbard to ‘change’ her position on Iran’s capacity to produce a nuclear weapon and – coward that she is – she has done so. The ‘possessiobn of nuclear weapons’ is just the excuse to justify ‘regime change’. War is now certain. Iran needs to grasp that and organise to resist and such resistance should try and suck US troops in and destroy them, keep bombing Israel as long as possible, ‘educate’ its people (because some will have fallen for western propaganda) and the US has proxies on the ground to try regime change, and try and build the strongest links possible with BRICS countries for a long-term war.
Gabbards ‘reversal’ is reminiscent of the Attorney Generals ‘changed’ advice at the time of the Iraq war. It is about ‘Manufacturing Consent’ but the problem for the USA is this: the world has changed; Iran is a lot bigger than Iraq; there is widespread opposition in ‘the west’ and no illusions about Israel. The risk for the USA is that if they are sucked into a long war then it could divert them from their long term aim of ‘pivoting to Asia’, entangle them in a long losing war and weaken the USEmpire globally. This is an horrific prospect but there is no alternative. Iran has two choices – capitulate or fight. Illusions in Trump are now shattered. The world is polarised. It will take hundreds of thousands of deaths, the destruction of large parts of Iran and potentially a decade of conflict BUT the USA (and the UK) CAN be defeated. Iran desperately tried to avoid this and like Assad (who tried to work with the Gulf States) tried to placate the USA by refusing to agree a security pact with Russia. You cannot trust the USA or the UK. War is now almost certain. Jewish Voice for Labour has played a significant role in combatting the propaganda that has sought to explain and justify the violence of Israel (and the USA). It needs to be part of a wide coalition now and while continuing to focus on Gaza, prepare for a very long and bloody conflict in the Middle East.
Israel secretly developed a nuclear bomb decades ago and did their best to hide the fact. One brave solitary Israeli man, whose name I am too old to remember, outed this fact very publicly, and was jailed for 25 years and I believe was kept in solitary confinement for it the whole time. I remember also the day he was released. It seemed to me Israel was a rogue state from at least then on, and now that I know much more, even long before that. I hope someone can provide more of the facts of this piece of history than this. When will the International Criminal Court be allowed by the world’s even bigger rogue states, whose power to veto every demand for justice at the United Nations means justice is being denied again and again, to put Netanyahu and his supporters, including the US and UK, on trial for genocide and complicity in genocide, and above all, for the starvation of a whole population, the destruction of their whole country and the massacre and starvation of their children above all. Which as one placard at today’s march in London read: “the murder of children does not constitute self-defence”.
It was Mordechai Vanunu
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Vanunu
It was Mordehs Vanunu
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Vanunu