Israel’s attack on Iran is the latest aggression whose aim is to ‘restructure the Middle East’ in Western interests and must be stopped

Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and now Iran.

In the last twenty months, Israel has bombed, injured and maimed tens of thousands of people across the Middle East, creating havoc and leaving death and destruction in its wake.

Each time the Israelis have launched their aggressive actions, they have come out with the same tired excuses: this was a ‘pre-emptive strike’ that was ‘targeted’ on ‘terrorists’ and munition sites, a surgical attack by ‘the most moral army in the world’.

But the world knows the truth.

Israeli forces have bombed and destroyed housing complexes, schools, hospitals and universities, against the ‘rules of war’ and any decent notion of morality. They have repeatedly broken international law; their bombing of Iran’s nuclear power stations being the latest example. They have used hunger and starvation as a weapon of war and civilians as human shields.

Even as they attacked Iran, they continued their genocide in Gaza. On Tuesday, Israeli tanks opened fire on starving civilians queuing for food at the Israeli/US aid centres.

There is no depth to which their depravity will not sink.

The attack on Iran is the latest aggression whose aim is to ‘restructure the Middle East’ in Western interests. Their initial claim was that this was because Iran was close to establishing nuclear-weapon capability. We have heard this script from Netanyahu on numerous occasions, for almost three decades. There is only one nuclear power in the region, Israel, and it is the one which refuses to sign the nuclear non-proliferation agreement, or allow international inspection teams in to view its nuclear arsenal.

By Monday, the Israelis’ aim had changed. Now their stated goal was regime change. The aggression was about removing Iran as one of Israel’s regional sub-imperial competitors and creating the conditions for the further expansion of Israeli borders by taming the source of the ‘axis of resistance’.

Israel’s assault is only possible with the backing of the Western powers. The EU, France, Germany and the UK all released statements defending Israel. The UK sent more aircraft to Cyprus and RAF planes were involved in shooting down Iranian drones and missiles, and providing refuelling services for Israeli warplanes. Starmer refused to rule out UK involvement to ‘defend Israel’.

The US-stated position seemed to change by the hour. Trump kept changing position on his ‘Truth Social’ platform, first claiming the US wasn’t involved, then that they were fully consulted, that worse was to come for Iran, that a negotiated peace was needed, or complete surrender was demanded. Trying to find a thread of coherence in Trump’s rantings is beyond most sane people, but behind the bluster, it is clear that the US knew of the attack, was happy for it to go ahead and was able to constrain Israel when it planned to assassinate Iranian leader Ali Khamenei.

Israel’s attack on Iran is about confronting their regional competitor, but for the US, dealing with the Iranian regime has been a goal since the Iranian revolution of 1979, which was a major defeat for US interests in the region.

Israel, with the backing of the US and UK, is on a killing spree. However, the Iranian regime is a far more significant player in the region than the likes of Hezbollah or Hamas were in Lebanon or Gaza.

As the week has progressed, the Iranians have managed to shoot down several F35 aircraft (something that was thought impossible for ground-to-air defences to do) and have launched several waves of missiles which have repeatedly breached the Israeli Iron Dome defence system.

Haifa, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and key military and Mossad sites have been bombed to an extent that the Zionist entity has not experienced in its 78-year history. The Haifa oil refinery has been put out of action and key infrastructural sites bombed, causing difficulties in Israel, and in the longer term, significant problems for the increasingly unpopular Netanyahu.

Israel has taken the Middle East and the world to a dangerous place. It is a disgrace that Western leaders, and Labour politicians in Britain, are backing Netanyahu once again.

For the pro-Palestine and anti-war movement in Britain, it is clear that our main enemy is at home. We need to stay on the streets and increase the pressure on Starmer.

Stop selling arms to Israel!

End the genocide in Gaza!

Stop the war on Iran!