I've been keeping up with the story when things are slow at work. The finance minister for Israel is the leader of the hard-right warhawks in the Knesset and government at large who want to completely take over Gaza (and the West Bank eventually) and remove all Palestinians living there. His group is apparently a minority in Israeli politics, but Netanyahu relies on them to maintain his governing coalition, and if it falls, Netanyahu becomes a lot more vulnerable to the vast amount of corruption charges that he is actively in court over. Netanyahu needs to bend the knee to the warhawks to stay out of a jail cell for the rest of his life. Normally, I, as an American Christian, would not care about the internal politics of a tiny nation on the opposite side of the globe, but Israel's hard-right is getting desperate to act now, while Iran's proxy groups have been temporarily destroyed, Syria is in regime change, Lebanon basically doesn't have a functioning government, and the Arabian states aren't in direct diplomacy with Israel, where a war is a lot harder to deal with. Israeli right wingers want a war with Iran but they need the US or Europe to do their dirty work, and if the US normalizes relations with Iran, the chance for Israeli supremacy in the Middle East are over for at least a few decades.
Simple numbers. Unlike in wars past, where Israel by itself kicked the entire Arab world’s butts, the now competent and well armed Muslim countries have erased enough of the technological edge Israel once had to bring the full might of their populations numerical advantage. Israel could theoretically manage Iran by itself with some well-placed air strikes to try and cripple critical infrastructure, but the proliferation of more advanced advanced air defense systems (that the USSR or similar states would have never even thought of exporting, unlike Russia) and having to use the airspace of other countries to attack Iran means drawing in a whole bunch of your neighbors who will have little issue rallying their populations to attack Israel. Israel needs the US, as only the US can actually take down Iran in a reasonable amount of time without the war turning into a meat grinder like it would if China or Russia invaded. Only with American guns would Israel be able to increase its control of the region.
Also, I'd be amused if israel carried out a covert mission to supply the houthis with a rigged nuke, and have it fired at israel... only to suffer a 'technical malfunction' and blow up mecca. Real proper "through deception, commit warfare" instead of this waste of american taxpayer dollars.
But after the October 7th massacre, I won't trust their government to do something this simple.
I've been keeping up with the story when things are slow at work. The finance minister for Israel is the leader of the hard-right warhawks in the Knesset and government at large who want to completely take over Gaza (and the West Bank eventually) and remove all Palestinians living there. His group is apparently a minority in Israeli politics, but Netanyahu relies on them to maintain his governing coalition, and if it falls, Netanyahu becomes a lot more vulnerable to the vast amount of corruption charges that he is actively in court over. Netanyahu needs to bend the knee to the warhawks to stay out of a jail cell for the rest of his life. Normally, I, as an American Christian, would not care about the internal politics of a tiny nation on the opposite side of the globe, but Israel's hard-right is getting desperate to act now, while Iran's proxy groups have been temporarily destroyed, Syria is in regime change, Lebanon basically doesn't have a functioning government, and the Arabian states aren't in direct diplomacy with Israel, where a war is a lot harder to deal with. Israeli right wingers want a war with Iran but they need the US or Europe to do their dirty work, and if the US normalizes relations with Iran, the chance for Israeli supremacy in the Middle East are over for at least a few decades.
Can't they fight their own wars? If they could, things would be different.
Simple numbers. Unlike in wars past, where Israel by itself kicked the entire Arab world’s butts, the now competent and well armed Muslim countries have erased enough of the technological edge Israel once had to bring the full might of their populations numerical advantage. Israel could theoretically manage Iran by itself with some well-placed air strikes to try and cripple critical infrastructure, but the proliferation of more advanced advanced air defense systems (that the USSR or similar states would have never even thought of exporting, unlike Russia) and having to use the airspace of other countries to attack Iran means drawing in a whole bunch of your neighbors who will have little issue rallying their populations to attack Israel. Israel needs the US, as only the US can actually take down Iran in a reasonable amount of time without the war turning into a meat grinder like it would if China or Russia invaded. Only with American guns would Israel be able to increase its control of the region.
Fuckin' Obama amirite?
Also, I'd be amused if israel carried out a covert mission to supply the houthis with a rigged nuke, and have it fired at israel... only to suffer a 'technical malfunction' and blow up mecca. Real proper "through deception, commit warfare" instead of this waste of american taxpayer dollars.
But after the October 7th massacre, I won't trust their government to do something this simple.