After the Iranian Retaliatory Strike Against Israel, We Wait to See What Netanyahu’s Next Move Will Be

Everyone watched eagerly this past weekend as uncertainty hit the geopolitical stage. Will Israel seek revenge in response to a retaliation by Iran because of an attack on a consulate in Syria? Will the United States come to the military assistance of Israel? Will Russia join the fray to defend Iran? Is this the beginning of World War III? The American corporate media seemed to focus on the poor Israeli victims, when in reality, there is much more to the story.

As I wrote last week, we already knew that Iran was preparing an attack on Israel and were just waiting to see how severe it would be and when it would occur. Regardless of justification, Iran was never going to just let an Israeli bombing of its consulate in Syria go unanswered (what government lets an attack go unpunished?), but as far as attacks go, the one on April 13, 2024 was pretty restrained. In fact, the Iranian government announced that it was going to attack for weeks prior, gave a seventy-two-hour warning right beforehand, knew that its slow-moving 170 drones and 120 ballistic missiles (as well as thirty cruise missiles) would be intercepted due to the Iron Dome air defense system, and then proclaimed that its retaliation was over after one day of missile strikes. The Islamic Republic (along with assistance from its proxies in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Lebanon) accomplished what it wanted (retaliation) while minimizing damage to Israel and not taking any civilian casualties, with the exception of one ten-year-old girl, who was injured (but not killed) from shrapnel. If only the Israeli military could be better trained and disciplined to attack like this without killing mass amounts of people, half of its criticisms would likely disappear.

Only five ballistic missiles got through the Iron Dome, Israeli military aircraft, and the United States’ warships and jets and were able to make it onto the ground (yes, the Biden administration maneuvered warships and planes to assist in intercepting some of the missiles, in conjunction with the British, French, and Jordanian militaries). The only real assessable damage was to a runway, empty hangars, a storage facility, and a C-130 transport airplane at Navatim Air Force Base (where it stores F-35s), and another missile missed a radar site. Israel should just cut its near lack of losses and let it go (turn the other cheek, or be the bigger man), but that would be too much of a diplomatic solution for a regime built on war and aggression (again, governments always respond to attacks in order to not look weak).

Prior to the unprecedented Saturday attack against Israeli territory, Iranian special forces of the Revolutionary Guard (rappelling from helicopters) seized an Israeli-affiliated cargo ship (Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries) in the Strait of Hormuz as sort of a pre-retaliation show of force. All-in-all, the Iranian response to the consulate attack was very mild, and it is now declared over. However, Iran’s comeback may lead to tit-for-tat responses and a broader conflict in the region (why is it that we say that Israel has a right to defend itself through offensive operations, but Iran does not have that same right?).

Although President Joe Biden has said that he will not assist the Israeli government in directly retaliating against Iran, thus indirectly acknowledging that Israel was in the wrong for attacking an Iranian consulate and sort of deserved the Iranian missile strike, he also reiterated that the United States had an “ironclad commitment to the security of Israel.” As soon as Israel attacks Iran, with or without the United States’ direct assistance, Iran will respond again. The Persian nation has stated as much, even going as far as to suggest that it will strike even harder at Israel and possibly at American bases, since the United States will continue to support Israel, no matter what. If there are back and forth attacks between Iran and Israel in the upcoming weeks, it is a moot point to say that President Biden will not help Israel attack Iran, since the United States supports Israel unconditionally and supplies it with money and weapons. Our government is a belligerent in this war whether we acknowledge it or not, and at the end of the day, the Biden administration will defend Israel and become involved in any hot war that erupts between the two nations. Even if the president only indirectly supports Israel’s attack against Iran, it is still support, nonetheless. It is funny that the Biden administration will openly condemn Iran for retaliating, but it will walk on eggshells to sort of show discontent with what Israel did or does (but kind of not really).

Regardless of how prudent a counterattack against Iran would be and how it might drag the United States into a hot war with Iran (something that the Israeli government and the Benjamin Netanyahu regime have wanted for years), Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz said that plans have been approved to “exact a price” on Iran. Although we do not know what this attack will look like, we know that it could bring about regional war between Iran and Israel, outside of the normal proxy wars and exchanging of bombs in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Lebanon.

Additionally, Russia is an ally of Iran, and it has urged (along with many other countries) Israel not to retaliate and sent a hypersonic missile-armed navy frigate to the Mediterranean Sea as a show of force against Israel. China has called for peace but is moving ever closer to Russia and Iran militarily, and we remember the entangling alliances that contributed toward World War I. Colombian President Gustavo Petro has declared that the world is already in the “prelude to World War III,” and many leaders are concerned that a global war could be sparked by this catalyst. Whether or not World War III starts rests largely on Benjamin Netanyahu, and given his war hawk and aggressive behaviors, we should not be confident that he will choose diplomacy. The people of the world do not want global conflict, but unfortunately, the rich and powerful benefit from it and will hide in their bunkers while we suffer from the wars that they started (governments and corporations partner together to profit and gain control of the citizenry from the bloodshed). President Biden should make any future aid conditional on whether the Israeli government escalates tensions and continues to slaughter innocent Gazans (“Genocide Joe” has a nice ring to it).

While American propaganda coming from government officials and the corporate media try to convince us that Israel is a victim, do not forget about the Flour Massacre, where Israeli soldiers shot and killed 112 Palestinians in cold blood (and wounded 750) because starving civilians gathering to get food from aid trucks apparently “looks” suspicious (eye roll), and the fact that the Netanyahu regime recently stole 2,743 acres (eleven square kilometers or four square miles) of Palestinian territory in the West Bank (not Gaza or Hamas-controlled areas) for the purposes of building Israeli settlements in place of Palestinian ones (this is the largest land grab since the 1993 Oslo Accords, and these seizures and settlements are considered illegal under international law and make it near impossible for the people of the West Bank to have a future nation state).

On top of using starvation as a weapon (over 500,000 or one-quarter of Palestinians are starving because of Israel’s war in Gaza) and the conquering of Palestinian territory, Israel is also eliminating (sometimes through assassination or detention) Palestinian journalists who are covering the war and providing evidence of genocide, and the Netanyahu regime is banning foreign news outlets, including Al Jazeera, in order to prevent revelations of atrocities committed in Gaza (under the guise of national security threats, and I suppose that exposing massacres would be considered a threat to any tyrannical government). According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (based in the United States), ninety or more journalists have been intentionally targeted and killed, but the Biden administration has no problem with this violation of free press, or the theft of land, starvation of innocent people, deaths of 33,000 Palestinians, or the displacement of 1.4 million people.

American taxpayers seemingly cheer on the Israeli “defense” measures and continue to want billions of dollars to be lobbied away from them and funneled to the Netanyahu regime and the military-industrial complex. Some in the United States are even calling for bombing Iran because of the deliberately unsuccessful missile strikes into Israeli territory, and these war hawks are not thinking rationally and are ignoring the fact that such an event would inevitably cause a larger global conflict. Just like last week, I wrote an article while we anticipated Iran’s retaliation, and now, we sit here and wait to see what actions the Israeli government will take. It is doubtful that the peaceful route will be traversed, but we can hope.

Thank you for reading, and please check out my book, The Global Bully, and website.