Attack on Iran is Israel and the US's latest step in implementing Mideast regime change
As Middle East tensions spiral, and the prospect of a broader regional war intensifies, it's important to examine previous steps the US and Israel took over the years towards regime change and hegemonic control of the region.
Israel's attack on Iran is the culmination of Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu's threats to bomb Iran for years. He first stated in 1992, when he was a parliamentary member, that Iran was three to five years away from a nuclear bomb.
In his 1995 book Fighting Terrorism, Netanyahu warned that Iran was 'five to seven years at most' from assembling a nuclear weapon.
In 1996 a policy document called A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm, prepared by a study group led by American neoconservative Richard Perle, was presented to Netanyahu who was also prime minister then. The document argued for regional regime changes rather than pursuing peace talks with the Arab world.
Perle was a member of a former neoconservative think-tank Project for a New American Century which drummed up support for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 on false claims of possession of weapons of mass destruction following the attack on New York's Twin Towers in 2001. Most of the attackers were from Saudi Arabia, an ally of the US.
Although the claims of Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction were later proved false, there was a regime change as planned.
In 2006, US General Wesley Clarke received a classified memo outlining a new military strategy of toppling seven countries over five years. Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran were perceived as being hostile to Israel and the US.
During his various premierships Netanyahu repeatedly warned that an Israeli attack on Iran was imminent as several mock attacks on Tehran were carried out by Israeli security forces.
Netanyahu's political ambitions not only demanded the overthrow of Iran, as the prize jewel in his crown, but his Likud party's 1977 charter further outlines that Israeli territory would cover all land from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River, effectively incorporating the West Bank which Israel is in the process of annexing.
So far more than 40,000 Palestinians have been ethnically cleansed from towns and cities throughout the West Bank alone by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The UN has also outlined a spike in Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian homes and property, with support from the IDF, which has led to whole rural communities being displaced.
Likud also calls for the permanent occupation of Syria's Golan Heights while many right-wing settlers have called for Israel to reoccupy Gaza – once the Palestinians have been permanently driven out as previously outlined by the Israeli Intelligence Ministry.
Another reason for Netanyahu wanting Israel's wars to last as long as possible is to escape the very real possibility of jail terms should he be convicted on several pending fraud and corruption charges which have been put on hold due to the military escalation.
An Israeli documentary, The Bibi Files, brilliantly outlines clearly how the Israeli premier's arrogance, his sense of entitlement, fear of jail and a conviction of a divine calling encourage his warmongering – aided and abetted by convicted, extremist ministers serving in his governing coalition.
That Iran is hostile to Israel and has armed, trained and financed proxy militias in the region is undeniable. However, Ayatollah Khamenei spoke about a fatwa, or religious edict, against Iran building a nuclear weapon while Tehran stated repeatedly it would not attack Israel unless first attacked.
The Iranians argue that their support for the Palestinian cause and resistance aligns with their historical ideology as UN and international bodies report that Israel is guilty of apartheid policies and is responsible for carrying out war crimes and genocide in both Gaza and the West Bank.
They also accuse Washington of blindly bankrolling Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian land politically, militarily and economically to the tune of billions of dollars annually.
While the US's official position previously has always been in support of a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the Americans have turned a blind eye to Israel's continued expropriation of Palestinian land and the accompanying human rights abuses, with full American support.
Furthermore, Trump's government is full of Christian and Jewish Zionists who believe in Israel's right to all the land based on biblical prophecy.
Before Israel's attack on Iran there appeared to be some flexibility among the US negotiating team for allowing Iran a small amount of enriched uranium for civilian purposes only.
However, after Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Mossad chief David Barnea met US envoy Steve Witkoff for talks, before the next round of nuclear talks in Oman, Trump doubled down on zero enrichment, despite the director of US National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, arguing that Iran was not developing a nuclear weapon.
The 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and the US allowed Iran to enrich uranium up to 3.67% under International Atomic Energy Agency monitoring before Trump pulled out of the deal. After the Americans pulled out of the deal the Iranians accelerated their enrichment.
Ironically, the Israelis are reliably reported to have several nuclear bombs, have never signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, and don't allow international nuclear inspectors into the country. Furthermore, following Israel's attack the Iranian parliament is now preparing a bill to leave the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
Israel's Arab neighbours are also accused by critics of being Washington's proxies in the region. These include the weak, unelected governments of Egypt and Jordan – who are afraid of their respective Arab streets and are obligated by American patronage to support Israel and the US – and the Sunni Gulf countries who have been traditionally opposed to Shia Iran due to the Sunni-Shia schism which divides the Middle East.
Russia's foreign ministry condemned Israel's attack on Iran as illegal, arguing that only diplomacy could resolve the issue before warning that unacceptable threats to international security could push the world to a nuclear catastrophe.
China also expressed concern about Israel's military operation, with President Xi Jinping arguing that all parties should work together to de-escalate the situation and prevent it from deteriorating further.
International humanitarian law has been severely undermined by Western governments who have supported 'Israel's right to self-defence' and largely supported Israel's bloody destruction of and slaughter in Gaza.
Israel's attack on Iran has also conveniently turned the collective eyes of the world away from the continuing Gaza carnage and the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank as the media focuses on the Israel-Iran conflagration.
Israeli attacks on Iranian gas facilities, a hospital, a TV station and other leadership targets, not related to its military infrastructure, are prohibited under international law.
Furthermore, international law states that self-defence is only permitted if a country has already been attacked or if there is solid, credible information that an attack is imminent.
Israeli military censorship rules have prevented coverage of Iran's targeting of the IDF military base of HaKirya, which is in the middle of civilian Tel Aviv, or their bombing of Mossad's headquarters and the IDF 8200 military intelligence unit in the seaside town of Herzliya just north of the city.
A top-brass IDF meeting was also recently held in a fortification below Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital, with little media coverage in regards to the IDF embedding itself in civilian areas. DM
Mel Frykberg is an experienced journalist who has been based in Gaza and the West Bank, the Middle East and north Africa for more than a decade, filing reports for a number of international media outlets from Ramallah, Jerusalem, Gaza, Cairo, Beirut, Tripoli (Libya) and Africa (Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda and South Africa).
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