Leylo
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But not by execution of children right
Current Affairs Israel is an apartheid state
- Thread starter Billy Dean
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davek
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eh...
tsubaki
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It is, but why was that claim ever made in the first place? We had journalists on camera saying they had personally seen horrific things; why did they have to embellish it even further with details like that?
tsubaki
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Iran’s unconvincing balancing act
Alex Vatanka
Director of Iran Program and Senior Fellow, Black Sea Program
Iran’s stance since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel has been an unconvincing balancing act. It shows Tehran wants to capitalize on the ongoing violence but still prefers to claim no responsibility for it. The coming weeks and months, as the Israel-Hamas conflict evolves in this new and uncharted phase, will show if Iran can safely walk this tightrope. The reaction from Tehran so far indicates that Iranian officials are both anxious as well as hopeful about the regional repercussions.
- Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, Tehran has tried to walk a tightrope, attempting to capitalize on the ongoing violence while still claiming it had no responsibility for it.
- Other than payback, Iran likely sees the Hamas attack as a moment to stack the deck in the region, planting doubts in the minds of Israel’s leaders as well as those in Arab states pursuing normalization with Israel.
On the one hand, the regime in Tehran has celebrated the attack as proof that armed conflict with Israel is the only course of action available to the Palestinians. And yet, on Oct. 10, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei felt it necessary to say that Tehran had not been involved in the attack. As he put it, the claim that “non-Palestinians” were involved is a “miscalculation.”
This Iranian assertion of innocence is aimed at shielding Tehran from international criticism as a key instigator behind the violence. It is, however, a hard sell given that Iran has provided support for Hamas for decades, despite ups and downs in relations. Iran’s financial and military support for Hamas is well known. Hamas officials are proud of receiving cash in suitcases from Tehran; and Iran’s Quds Force, part of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has been providing missiles to Hamas since at least 2008.
Still, Iran’s denial that it had a direct role in the Hamas attack might be credible. As of today, both the U.S. and the Israelis have found no evidence that Iran masterminded the attack. But no one can deny that the regime in Tehran has been looking to hit at Israel in a spectacular fashion for some time. As Tehran sees it, it has been repeatedly humiliated by Israel — from the U.S.-Israel Stuxnet cyberattacks against its nuclear program in 2010 to the assassinations of a number of Iranian officials in recent years, including Israel’s role in the killing of Quds Force head Qassem Soleimani in 2020.
Other than payback, Iran very likely sees the Hamas attack on Israel as a moment to stack the deck in the region. First, Tehran, Hamas, and other members of the Iran-led “Axis of Resistance,” including Lebanese Hezbollah, will use this conflict to plant doubts in the minds of Israeli leaders. Operation al-Aqsa Flood was certainly a monumental intelligence failure for Israel, and Iran and its allies will hope that Israel will — once its ongoing operations in Gaza are over — retrench and reassess its options.
At the same time, Iran is using this round of conflict to create doubt among Arab states that were moving toward normalizing ties with Israel or have already done so. As Khamenei’s top advisor Ali Akbar Velayati said, “Those willing to normalize with Israel should learn a lesson from the latest developments in Palestine.” This is not exactly a subtle warning but suggests what Tehran hopes to see happen, not necessarily where the region will go from here. Much depends on Israeli actions in the coming days and weeks, but it is too premature for Iran to assume this latest violence will vindicate its Axis of Resistance.
That’s a good article, but it does sort of forget to follow its argument to the logical conclusion - that what Hamas / Hezbollah / Iran might want to happen is for Israel to do exactly what they have been doing.
Tennessee Blue Mike
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Add Russia and you have a recipe for the end of times. Take a peak a Revelations.
tsubaki
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Russia would like us to publicly shred international law as a concept, which we are doing for some reason.
mightymoyes
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tsubaki
Player Valuation: £90m
To add some context (if people don’t know this) Levy was a negotiator for Israel with the Palestinians for many years, during Rabin and Barak’s time.
I do think though he’s missed some of the circularity in Western politics though - the US and especially the UK governments have given such backing to Israel because of the strength of the Israel lobbies in each country, and the weakness of the current leaders.
If so much effort hadn’t been poured into the lobbies the Israelis would be much more likely to have gotten sensible advice, rather than carefully worded full backing (which isn’t).
JobForTheMoyes
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So if the British establishment hadn’t supported Zionism in the early 20th century how would things have turned out? Perhaps an alternative Jewish state?
Superb
Seems like Hezbollah may have entered the war
Does UK really support Israel that much? Usually i never hear anything about Britain and Israel, when people talk about Israel its almost exclusively about America and their utter blind loyalty to Israel no matter what they do and that pro-Israeli lobby in Washington (forgot its name).
Another i heard a lot recently is about clandestine connection with Russia, apparently a lot of Russian oligarchs are Jewish or got some connection there.
davek
Player Valuation: £150m
Seems like it was drones and not paragliders now
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