Source: Mondoweiss.net
Benjamin Netanyahu continues to raise the risk of a regional war which could draw in the U.S. — and the mainstream media is hiding the danger from its audience.
Benjamin Netanyahu continues to raise the risk of a Mideast regional war which could draw in the U.S. — and the mainstream media is hiding the danger from its audience. Israel’s provocative aerial assassination of a senior Iranian military leader in Damascus on April 1 is only Netanyahu’s latest effort to expand the fighting across the region, partly to put off his own painful day of reckoning. He knows that America has troops stationed all over the Mideast, and he hopes that Iran will retaliate against them, escalating conflict.
It is clear Netanyahu does not want an immediate end to the current conflict spreading throughout the Middle East. A permanent ceasefire in Gaza means Israeli voters would soon turn him out of office, end his shattered political career in disgrace — and re-start his corruption trial, which could send him to prison.
Netanyahu’s real motivation is widely understood among those who follow the Mideast. But the U.S. media totally ignored that angle. The New York Times report at least smuggled in a comment from a former CIA official, who called Israel’s airstrike “incredibly reckless.” But the Times did not examine Netanyahu’s selfish personal motivation. The Washington Post report said nothing about recklessness. National Public Radio also played dumb, as did the PBS NewsHour. A CNN on-air report did say Israel ordered the killing, but no Netanyahu angle there either.
Meanwhile, the Iranian-American Mideast expert Sina Toossi told the truth, at the Center for International Policy website. His headline was: “Israel’s Damascus airstrike was a deliberate provocation.”
He went on: “Netanyahu’s decision to green-light the airstrike on Damascus seems to be a calculated act to amplify the hostilities. Such a move sharply contrasts with international appeals for restraint and indicates a deliberate escalation strategy.”
Toossi didn’t hesitate to speculate about Netanyahu’s real motivation:
“Netanyahu seems to be aiming to provoke Iran and intensify the conflict to galvanize domestic and international political support and justify wider military actions, potentially in Rafah and against Hezbollah and Iran. This strategy risks drawing the United States deeper into the conflict. . .”
Sina Toossi surely has a telephone and a computer and would talk to the New York Times and CNN. They don’t have to agree with his analysis — just recognize that their audience deserves to hear it. And if Toossi seems too risqué for the mainstream, they could instead turn to Amos Harel, the hard-headed military affairs reporter at the Israeli daily Haaretz, who just warned that Netanyahu “is actually seeking a forever war that will postpone the national settling of accounts for responsibility for the terrible failure of October 7, and possibly delay his criminal trial.”
Netanyahu’s strategy is not new. This site has long reported on how he has instigated conflict between the U.S. and Iran, even before his own political survival was at stake. He tried to sabotage the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, and during the Trump administration Israel launched regular clandestine attacks inside Iran, including assassinations of scientists. Back then, Netanyahu wanted the U.S. to destroy what he argued was Iran’s march toward a nuclear weapon.
Today, his selfish motivation must be part of any legitimate analysis. His foot-dragging over even agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in Gaza makes sense in that light. This does not mean that he’s conning an Israeli public that is actually peace-loving. It does mean that he could be making a terrible situation even worse — and the U.S. media are not telling the truth to the American public.