The dust has settled around the Israel/Iran war and things have become clearer. It appears that Israel asked the US to arrange the ceasefire. It was running out of anti-ballistic missiles and taking devastating damage.

The original Israeli aim was a regime change ‘decapitation’ strike on Iran. The USA was fully aware of this and pretended to be preparing for negotiations so creating a false sense of security that allowed Israel cover to launch its unprovoked attack. The Israeli’s were confident it would succeed.

The initial attacks killed whole families of scientists and military leaders – but failed to collapse the Iranian state which fought back. Eventually Israel was forced to back off having been seriously bombed. The impact on the Israeli population shouldn’t be underestimated. Over a quarter of a million have left.

Under the law Iran has a right to peaceful nuclear enrichment if it accepts the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and allows nuclear inspectors to check up. Iran felt that if it worked with the nuclear inspection team and enriched uranium to 60 %, it could use this as a bargaining chip in negotiations to get back to the position that had been agreed with the USA at the time of President Obama. Trump refused to accept any enrichment at all. He tore the Obama agreement up and bombed Iran’s nuclear processing sites.

Israel only survives with the support of the USA because it is seen as ‘the wests’ ally in this oil-rich region. The USA risks being dragged into a war in the Middle East by Israel against Iran.

The US attack on the Iranian enrichment sites has appeased the powerful and corrupt pro-Israel lobby – for the moment. He promised the US electorate no more war – and bombing Iran has exposed him to a lot of criticism from his ’Make America Great Again’ movement. He does not want another ‘forever war’ in the Middle East and neither do most Americans. Trumps insistence that the enrichment facility has been totally destroyed makes it hard for Israel to enlist the USA to ‘finish the job’.

But Israel does. According to Israel, Iran has been ‘on the brink’ of producing a nuclear weapon for over thirty years and needs to be destroyed so that Israel can dominate the region. They have nuclear weapons (at least 100). They haven’t signed up to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and thus do not allow inspectors into the country. Who is really the main threat?

When Israel launched this unprovoked attack on Iran, Prime Minister Starmer issued a statement maintaining Israel has a right to defend itself! He ignored the reality that Israel was the perpetrator of the war and not the victim. No wonder ‘the west’ is rapidly losing credibility in the world with its sanctimonious talk about ‘human rights’ and ‘the rules-based order’. It is sheer hypocrisy.

Israel bit off more than it could chew with its attack on Iran. But will Trump allow the US to be dragged into a second attempt?