Hugh J Curran
Is there a long-term strategic goal to be achieved in the incessant bombing of Iranian cities by Israel?. In the 24 plus days of this onslaught the U.S. has, intentionally or not, managed to obliterate a girls school and kill 170 eight to twelve year old students and their teachers.
America is obsessed with security needs and has built over 800 bases around the world,19 of them located in the Middle East. It is these that are targeted by Iran to prevent bombing campaigns by Israel and the U.S.
Most of these bases were built after the formation of the 1979 Islamic Republic, when 600,000 Iranians left with the Shah to become refugees in the U.S and Canada. In a recent poll, more than half of these Iranians voted for a diplomatic solution to the current war, while a minority supported the Israeli-U.S. bombing.
In the Iran bombing campaign, labeled “Operation Epic Fury”, one of the results has been that U.S. and Israeli ships are not allowed to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a state of affairs that is now affecting oil prices on a global scale.
Neither military leaders nor the American Congress were able to comprehend, or warn Trump, of the dire possibilities that can result from bombing Iran. The death of civilians and the destruction of the infrastructure of the country is horrific enough, but the prevention of much of the oil shipments that control 20% of global oil supply, will have worldwide consequences when gas prices continue to rise and electricity shortages take place, as well as food prices rising.
There is no longer any doubt that Israeli leaders, especially Netanyahu, have persuaded Trump to undertake this consequential war. It is a painful paradox that Israel is attacking Lebanon simultaneously while relying on the Dahiya Doctrine, a strategy involving the large-scale destruction of civilian infrastructure in order to pressure governments hostile to Israel. The logic is that the death and destruction of civilian populations will compel them to sue for peace. But, more often than not, the opposite happens and those suffering from bombing become even more entrenched, as is taking place in Iran.
The Lebanon attacks have displaced 800,000 people with the bombing resulting in severe damage to 439 healthcare facilities while over 1000 civilians have been killed and 2500 wounded; at the same time the U.S-Israel bombing of Iran has killed an estimated 1500 with 21,000 injured.
According to an Israeli news report, “many hundreds of protesters gathered in central Tel Aviv to rally against the Iran war, the first protest action in what is expected to be a wave of demonstrations continuing into next week, demanding an end to the government’s forever wars”. The writer notes that “Netanyahu is not satisfied with us absorbing Iranian missiles for the second time – he also wants us to sink into the Lebanese forever war for the fourth time.”
Another Israeli journalist wrote: “PM Netanyahu and his allies are …a lot more dangerous than any murderous regime or terrorist organizations. The opposition to them must… be fought…through a stubborn insistence on adhering to the law, to norms and to basic values”
There is an “Alliance for Middle East Peace” (ALLMEP) made up of over 200 organizations and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and Israelis working diligently for peace. These grass-root groups represent the moral and ethical heart of Israel and Palestine. It will be through their efforts that healing relations will take place between various factions after Netanyahu and his supporters have exhausted their self-destructive missions.
In the meantime, we will see the Israeli leadership suffer far more harm (morally and materially) than those they attempt to bomb into submission. According to a Tel Aviv University Study, 90,000 of Israel’s most educated professionals, including 500 doctors and 633 PhD’s, have departed the country in the past couple of years, realizing perhaps, that it is cooperation and friendships that allow them to work at their best and not a perpetually militant society.
Hugh Curran teaches in the University of Maine Peace & Reconciliation Studies Program.
