Death and Destruction

The coming months promise more deeper regional conflicts, but also to ignite mass social movements with increasing frequency across the world. Surprisingly, America continues to witness pro-Palestine protests and state repression as well. Right now masses of demonstrations are packed into streets, parks and plazas across the United States to protest President Donald Trump with the slogan “No Kings”. Caught between fear and determination, working-class people and aggrieved youth confront a pivotal social reality. It is a crucial time for the left to come together and build durable, broad-based mass fronts, conditions and relationships at a time when the political right, more precisely the far right ascends around the globe. And ‘Rightist Upsurge’ means March to fascism, which again needs wars to survive. With wars escalating in the Middle East and stalemating in Ukraine after more than three years, the ruling elites everywhere find an excuse to silence the voice of dissent and allow the market to do the mayhem.

That Israel would be attacking Iran was a foregone conclusion. But Prime Minister Netanyahu’s timing—just days before planned US-Iran negotiations on what they call a nuclear deal–appears calculated to pre-empt diplomacy and assert Israel’s strategic dominance. With Washington’s quiet assent, the strike signals a deliberate shift from containment to confrontation, after the weakening of Iran’s non-state actors. Trump’s apparent innocence, repeating the narrative time and again that America is not involved in this war, is hypocrisy unlimited. The Pentagon is very much in the war and they will continue to engage in war covertly till the regime is changed in Iran.

Earlier, Israel destroyed the nuclear facilities of Iraq and Syria, while Britain-led NATO buried Gaddafi’s nuclear ambition in Libya forever. This time Israel has succeeded to cripple Iran’s nuclear installations and killing prominent nuclear scientists. But the questions about the legality of the attack loom large, as the IAEA cites international resolutions prohibiting armed strikes on nuclear sites used for peaceful purposes. As global powers react cautiously, the risk of unintended consequences grows. In reality, ultimately, nothing is peaceful in the nuclear business. Bombs are planned and manufactured under the cloak of ‘clean nuclear energy’ right from the construction of the first reactor.

Despite Israel’s overwhelming military superiority and Mossad’s deep operational reach inside Iran, Tehran has demonstrated sufficiently its capacity to retaliate, targeting central Israel and vital infrastructures, including defence establishments. For one thing, Iran is not Iraq. Iran is not Afghanistan. Iran is not Lebanon. Iran is not Yemen. Iran is the 17th largest country in the world with a landmass equivalent to the size of Western Europe. It has a population of almost 90 million–10 times greater than Israel–and its military resources, oil wealth, as well as alliances with China and Russia, make it a formidable rising regional power. Iran is breaking the myth that the Israeli Defence Forces are invincible. After Iran’s counter-offensive, Israel is now feeling the heat. Even Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are under severe Iranian missile attack, mocking Israel’s impregnable air defence system.

Trump’s double game to buy peace is not working as it didn’t work in the Russia-Ukraine war. He is said to have vetoed an Israeli plan to kill Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but there is no way to verify his claim. It’s a war that neither Israel nor America can win decisively, but it has all the potential to endanger self-ferocious blowback. The impact of the Israel-Iran conflict will soon be felt in oil-importing countries, including India. As the war intensifies, only oil majors and military-industrial complexes are enjoying this Middle East moment. With every passing day, death and destruction are mounting on both sides, while Israel has been able to divert international attention from its ongoing genocidal campaign in Gaza.

18-06-2025

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Frontier
Vol 58, No. 2, Jul 6 - 12, 2025