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Red Lines and Rockets: Reframing the War on Gaza
Madison, Wisconsin (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Barely a day after Iran fired drones, cruise, and ballistic missiles westward across the desert skies towards Israel, in response to Israel’s attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps commander, Hossein Salami, issued the following statement: “From now on, if Israel attacks Iranian interests, figures, and citizens anywhere, Iran will retaliate from Iranian soil.” If Iran stands by this declaration, it has issued a new red line in the simmering regional war Israel has instigated with its brutal destruction of Gaza.
Viewers accustomed to American media will likely blame Iran for any intensification of hostilities. In fact, however, virtually every act of aggression that has taken place in the region since October 8th is rooted in Israel’s ‘war’ on Gaza, which has deep roots not only in the European colonial past but in religious mythology and a Zionist ideology that is rigid, chauvinistic and exclusive. All three factors underscore the belief that Jews alone have a right to historic Palestine.
Across America, as the carefully choreographed Iranian “attack” played out like a fireworks display on our television screens, Hudia –a friend of mine in Rafah, Gaza—recorded her thoughts:
- “Was Iran allowed to attack Israel so that the world’s attention would be drawn away from Gaza? If so, it was successful. Here in Gaza, however, Israel’s destruction did not stop for one second. Iranian missiles broke apart in the skies to our east, but the drones and bombs over our heads remained intact until they exploded on the ground, scattering debris and human bodies.”
On Saturday morning, 13 April 2024, the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported 33,634 Palestinians killed and 76, 214 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7th. By Monday morning, 15 April 2024, the death toll had increased to over 33,800 – an addition of nearly two hundred bodies—but global attention was now focused on Iran.
For the US and Israel this was a win. Herzl Halevi, Chief of Staff of Israel’s military, promised a response –a sinister pledge since Iran’s “attack” was supposed to have been the conclusion to Israel’s April 1st bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus in which Israel targeted what is considered sovereign Iranian territory, according to the 1961 Vienna Convention.
The Young Turks Video: “Israel Attacks Iran After Vowing Retaliation”
With this strike, Israel killed 16 people, including seven IRCG soldiers, two of whom were high-ranking officers, Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Mohammad Hadi Haj Rahimi.
Halevi and his associates in Israel understood the attack in Syria would have consequences beyond fulminations against the ‘Zionist entity.’ For the first time in its history, the Islamic Republic of Iran struck back at Israel. But this was little more than a face-saving measure.
Iran gave the US fair warning –allowing it to caution its embassy staff in Israel not to travel – and appears to have aimed most of its weapons at the Nevatim Air Base in southern Israel, where the F-35 that struck Damascus began its flight. This was a largely symbolic strike, one that aimed “to minimize casualties while maximizing spectacle.”
Iran is uninterested in regional war, least of all one that involves the United States. Why then are the Israelis so keen to hit back at Iran?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has taken the opportunity to justify a retaliatory attack. He has openly sought such a war for nearly 30 years. Although US President Joe Biden told Israel the US would not participate in any Israeli action against Iran, he has repeatedly told Israel US support is “ironclad”. If Iran attacks Israel again US participation is therefore guaranteed.
The American Israeli tango taking place has other curious features. When the US bombed several Middle East targets after three American service personnel were killed at Tower 22 in Jordan, Iran called on allied militia groups to cease all attacks against US bases in the region. After the Israeli strike in Damascus the Iranians held the United States responsible, placing US troops in danger yet again.
Rather than express anger at Israel, the US, UK, and France blocked a UN resolution condemning Israel’s actions. Iran’s offer not to hit back militarily if the UN condemned Israel’s actions was ignored. The United States was therefore instrumental in fueling Iran’s counterattack.
In Egypt and Qatar, Hamas negotiators have repeatedly demanded a permanent ceasefire in exchange for all the hostages taken on October 7th, yet Israeli negotiators have consistently refused insisting they must defeat Hamas in Gaza before the fighting stops. One result has been a surge in Hamas’ popularity across the Middle East; another is that the hostages remain in captivity. The US vetoed three UNSC resolutions demanding a ceasefire, abstained once, falsely claiming the resolution was “non-binding;” and continues to entertain Israel’s plan to invade Rafah.
With global attention focused on Israeli-Iranian tensions, Netanyahu can claim at least a partial victory. What better way to salvage Israel’s image, battered by its genocidal actions in Gaza, than to spearhead an assault against the “Axis of Resistance”?
Israel can again claim it is a tiny, beleaguered nation fighting valiantly against “terrorism” and Islamic ‘treachery’ with Hamas (and Palestinian Islamic Jihad) portrayed as the agents of Tehran. As such, Hamas is but one arm of the sinister ‘octopus’ whose head is the Islamic Republic and whose other arms include Hizbullah of Lebanon, Ansar Allah of Yemen, Syria, and various Iraqi paramilitaries.
For some in the West, Palestine is just a fig leaf covering the Axis’ greater goal of destroying Israel, instrumentalized by antisemites and shadowy anti-enlightenment villains determined to overthrow Western civilization. The protection of the Jewish State then becomes a moral duty.
Instead of being seen as a rogue nation pulverizing the Gaza Strip into oblivion, Israel will try to convince the world that its destruction of Gaza is to protect the world we know. If Palestinians have already been dehumanized to the extent that genocidal murder and displacement raise few eyebrows, they can be partly de-nationalized as well. Palestine will no longer be the central issue; our core Western values, of which Israel is a key representative, are under threat.
Is this the framework Netanyahu and his cohorts here and in Israel wish to reinforce? If so, they can ‘rightly’ conclude that demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and ignoring Iran’s attack are suicidal. Hudia writes,
- “Iran’s attack did nothing but divert attention from what’s happening here. Hundreds of Iranian drones and rockets evaporated into the atmosphere achieving nothing but heightened tensions with Israel, giving them greater license than ever to carry on with genocide and the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.”
