Netanyahu, the leader
of Israel, sounds reasonable in his speech and his answers to the press
questions, he has a nice voice, and is always composed. This is 19/03/2026
during the war on Iran by the US and Israel. The war was started by these
powers without warning during negotiations with Iran. The justification has
varied for the US and Trump, flipping between the apparent nuclear threat, to
the killing of protesters by the Iranian authorities, to regime change. Now, as Netanyahu speaks, he refers to Iran’s
conventional weapons that it has developed, describing them as a way for Iran
to develop and protect nuclear weapons. So now, also, Iran may not even develop
conventional weapons, as far as these powers are concerned. In effect this
means that Iran may not have a state, be a state, an authority with power.
The argument that these
allied powers were encouraging an uprising by the Iranian people rings hollow,
now, because the bombing, such as of needed infrastructure and the oil storage
facilities around Tehran, which affects Iranians badly, does not engender
sympathy even from the rebels.
On a news programme,
Trump expressed surprise that Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz as part of its
retaliation. The strait is a narrow point in the vital global trade route for
shipping, especially of fossil fuels. This in itself is surprising, both that
he did not expect it, and that he would admit to not expecting it. But Trump is
hard to pin down, he sows confusion and appears to operate on whims. The attack
on the giant gas field shared between Iran and Quatar. Was this known by Trump
or not? Who knows. Trump seems to deny knowing it, perhaps because it would not
be liked too much by Quatar, a supposed ally.
It seems incredible
that the leaders of Iran especially, after all this time, do not seem to
realize that the US and Israel work together, they are a ‘double act’ so to
speak. Or maybe they just go along with the illusion. Israel manages to
assassinate Iran’s leaders almost at will, but still Iran seems to be capable
of defending itself with its missiles and drones.
The question is, does
Israel and the US really want to degrade Iran to the extent that it represents
no threat? Do they not need a good excuse for war every now and then? And what
do they really expect from regime change if it were to happen? Not a
progressive revolution of course, they do not want a competing progressive
democracy or socialism in this fossil fuel rich location, they would prefer the
return of the Shah type of aristocracy, it is easier for them to make deals
with and exploit.
None of the ‘analysts’
of this war drawn on by the western media bring into the account of this
conflict the role of class. The US military bases strewn throughout the region
exist because the regional royalty, their ruling classes want them, because
they help them control their own working classes. Iran is the different one, the
exception, it had a revolution but went one step forwards and two steps
backwards, it ejected western interests and deposed the Shah but installed the
clerics and absolute religious authority. But it does not have the US bases and
is unfriendly to US regional influence, and Israel. It is therefore not
entirely untrue that Iran does not represent a threat to the world if it
develops nuclear weapons.
But it is also true
that we are always threatened by the nuclear weapons in the hands of people
like Trump and Netanyahu, and Hitlerism grew out of a democracy, so what is
different about Iran? Iran must not have nuclear weapons according to the
western powers for a hidden reason, because it is near all the oil and the main
trade route for it. For this reason, the Middle East in general must be kept virtually
medieval, and it must be reduced into this condition periodically by the
imperial powers. It must be made and kept barbaric. This is simple capitalist
imperialist competition at work.
What, in any case, is
the specific difference with Iran having nuclear weapons to other countries
that have them? Aside from the argument that they are crazy, Netanyahu claimed in
his speech that if they had nuclear weapons, they would blackmail the world. Is
this true? Apart from trying to know what is in the psychology of the future
Iranian regime if it had nuclear weapons, what would be their actual, material,
advantage? After all, they would only be in the same position as every other
nuclear power. If they were to use the bomb, there would be mutually assured
destruction, and no winners. Clearly the only real difference would be that other
nuclear powers would not be able to sway them with threats so easily, the
nuclear powers would lose influence in this region, which in the end is to lose
profits.
Regarding the
accusation of craziness, Iran has Islam as a state religion, unlike for
instance Judaism in the state of Israel. The west implies that this state
religion is especially unhinged. History does not prove this, yet every
religion has its extreme evangelists who can become state terrorists. At this
moment it is the democratic west led by Trump and Netanyahu that is being terrorist,
but on a grand crusading imperialist scale that makes the label seem weak and
inappropriate. Religion is dangerous because it is faith, and faith knows no
bounds.
Coming back to earth,
by missing out class in their analysis, the leaders of the west also miss out
the thorny issue of their own workers not being able to afford to buy fuel for
their cars to get to work and the cost of living is rising again. These are
ostensibly at least democracies, which have public opinion, which in the US is
opposed to this war. In the Middle East what the working classes think and feel
is a mystery to them, at least as far as they let us see. Iran attacks the
neighbouring Middle Eastern countries that host US military bases from which
they are being attacked, as they obviously would. These attacks must affect the
class relations in these countries, causing some wobbles. Thus, it is not only
Iran that could develop regime change given this war and its unsettling
conditions.
Generally western
leaders, in an amazing show of brazen hypocrisy, denounce Iran for attacking
these countries (i.e. defending itself) and remain quiet about the unlawful
surprise attack by Israel and the US on Iran, which started this war. Brazen
hypocrisy is clearly the name of the game these days, it is presumably a rather
strange way to try to hang onto a vestige of moral high ground, but they cannot
refer to international law anymore, which died with Gaza. This might be seen as
the law of the jungle, but in the jungle it is simpler, there is less
connivance, subterfuge, espionage, backstabbing, etc., all the hallmarks of human
economic contradictions and struggle.
And all this fighting
is over fossil fuels, all this extra pollution, at a time when we least need
it, when the planet is warming alarmingly due to the burning of these fuels.
Truly the global bourgeois classes seem to want to cement their reputation as totally
unfit to rule.