Crimes against humanity are only committed by enemies of the Western World. When the West or its allies are guilty of such acts, they are not to be considered as crimes but are to be justified no matter how egregious.
Such is the case with what we are seeing now in the Middle East. One sovereign country – Israel – last week blatantly attacked another – Iran – by targeting its political and military leadership, military and civilian infrastructure and scientists. Iran has tried to hit back and has also killed civilians and destroyed civilian infrastructure.
Israel’s take is that it is acting out of self-defence. Self-defence by acting pre-emptively, something that it has done before, most famously in 1967 when it attacked Syria, Jordan and Egypt, giving it control of the Golan Heights, West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza Strip.
This time, Benjamin Netanyahu said that Iran is days or weeks away from developing a nuclear bomb. Of course, he has been saying this for years – he has gone on record at international forums since at least 2015 claiming this exact same thing. Even the Americans, who can usually be trusted to agree with whatever Israel says, do not believe that Iran was currently building a nuclear bomb.
Donald Trump, though, is pushing Iran to agree to a deal. The two sides were negotiating exactly this when Israel launched its attack, which, predictably, scuppered the talks. Yet, do not forget that there was already a deal. One signed by Iran, the USA, the UN, Russia, etc back in 2015 to put a limit on Iranian nuclear enrichment. Who opposed this agreement tooth and nail? Netanyahu. And when Trump came to power the first time around he pulled the Americans out of the deal. Was there any punishment for the USA for reneging on this freely-entered into agreement? No, because they’re allowed to do as they please and ride roughshod over the rest of us.
Western hypocrisy doesn’t stop there. A day or two ago a senior European Union official called Iran one of the chief causes of instability in the Middle East. Iran’s hands are not clean, that is for sure. But did the EU condemn America for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths its intervention in that country caused? Of course not! Even its criticism of Israeli actions in Gaza have been muted by the affirmation that Israel has every right to defend itself against Iran even though it is obvious to anyone whose eyes are open that Israel was the aggressor in this instance.
What the Israelis want is far from clear. To rid Iran of its nuclear technological capabilities? Apparently so. Regime change? Perhaps. Removing the theocratic dictatorship would not necessarily be a bad thing but Netanyahu and his ministers are inconsistent as to whether this is a real aim of theirs or not. The Prime Minister has also said that the war is not being waged against Iranian civilians. And yet, his own defence minister threatened residents of Tehran with revenge for Iran’s missile attacks on civilian populations in Israel. Only after probably being told that this kind of language crossed the limits of decency did he walk back on his criminal threat.
Although Israeli politicians across the spectrum are rallying round to support the government in its attack on Iran, one does not have to be a cynic to see that Netanyahu could have ulterior motives for this blatant aggression – the risks to his precarious coalition have been reduced, he can string out his corruption trial for longer, the barrage of criticism from inside and outside the country regarding his handling of the Gaza War have been silenced (even as dozens of Palestinian civilians continue to be killed by Israeli troops daily while desperately seeking to secure food) and his failure to bring home the hostages is conveniently forgotten.
Iran’s hands are not clean, that is for sure. But neither are Israel’s.
