Western leaders are missing another prime opportunity to butt out of the Middle East

Western leaders are missing another prime opportunity to butt out of the Middle East

By: Rachel Marsden

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Iran lobbed a bunch of retaliatory missiles and drones at Israel over the weekend in what amounted to little more than a messaging exercise in the wake of Israel bombing its consulate in Syria. It was remarkably stunning for the damage that it didn’t do.

The tit-for-tat should end right here, but the usual warmongers want to leverage it for their own personal fantasy fulfillment purposes. In doing so, they’re egging on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against the will of his own people, with even members of his war cabinet calling for early elections amid ongoing protests, and 71 percent of Israelis now saying that they want him to resign immediately, according to a survey this month by two top Israeli news outlets.
“The Biden administration bears significant responsibility for this Iranian attack because for six months it has ignored the Hamas assault on Israel as part of Iran's larger "ring of fire" strategy against Israel,” Tweeted former US national security adviser, Ambassador John Bolton, who had earlier called on the Biden administration to “defeat the aggressor”.

Not exactly surprising coming from someone who’s routinely calling for the kind of US-led regime change wars which have had absolutely stellar results for world stability and peace.

Israel has been bombing Gaza civilians for months, seemingly under the pretext that as the civilian population of Gaza approaches zero, then so does the population of Hamas. Guys like Bolton conveniently and selectively conflate Hamas with Iran because it suits their narrative. But Qatar is Hamas’ main foreign sponsor. So why not gin up regime change there? Maybe because Qatar is a major US and Western ally, and promised$45 billion in American investments as recently as 2019 through its sovereign wealth fund.

Doha also owns French professional football team, Paris Saint-Germain, and Harrods department store in London, for example.

Bolton and his ilk must figure that people are dumb enough to think that Hamas, backed by not only Qatar, but also NATO ally Turkey, are no different than Iran-sponsored Hezbollah in Lebanon or Houthis in Yemen. But even these two Iranian proxies just reacted in solidarity with the people of Gaza amid Israel’s military campaign, with neither attacking Israel like Hamas did last October in kicking off this conflict.

Bolton isn’t the only one peddling torqued narratives. “Canada unequivocally condemns Iran’s attack. … After supporting Hamas’ Oct. 7 brutal attack. … The Iranian regime’s latest actions would further destabilize the region and make lasting peace more difficult. These attacks demonstrate Iran’s disregard for peace and stability in the region,” said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

What about a denunciation of Israel’s escalation that led to the response: the direct attack on Iranian soil with the consulate bombing in Damascus? And why did it take an Israeli missile strike on World Central Kitchen charity relief workers helping starving Palestinians before Western leaders like Trudeau could even be bothered to act alarmed?

Then they were quick to accept Israel’s characterization of events as some kind of one-off mistake, even though NBC News has reported that other aid workers on site claimed to have been targeted for months, either deliberately or through “reckless incompetence”.

“I condemn in the strongest terms he unprecedented attack launched by Iran against Israel, which threatens to destabilize the region,” Tweeted French President Emmanuel Macron. Here’s a thought — maybe this could have all been prevented if Macron and his allies had told Israel that wiping out all of Gaza to get Hamas risked generating blowback? They haven’t been bothered to effectively intervene to stop that, so why stick their nose in now? They’re acting like the kind of referee who gets booed off the playing field for a grotesque lack of objectively.

Iran’s response seemed engineered to avoid destabilization and escalation. It’s hardly a coincidence that the only weapons that did any real damage in the attack were the ballistic missiles that ended up hitting a military installation — Israel’s Nevatim air base — rather than civilian targets. Although it wasn’t even damaging enough to prevent the base from continuing to function, according to Israeli authorities. The estimated 30 cruise missiles and 170 low-powered drones never even reached Israeli soil and were basically little more than a fireworks show. None of it was enough to overwhelm Israel’s defenses, which could have been the case considering the size of Iran’s arsenal.

Iran knows Israel’s defense capabilities, and clearly chose a response that was modest in every sense except for the media freakout that has ensued.

International law allows for a proportional response to Israel’s attack on Iran’s consulate in Damascus that killed several of its military personnel. The moderate attack on the Israeli air base checks that box — albeit barely, frankly. If anything, the retaliatory measure was conservative. Yet you’d think, from the reaction of Western leaders, that the opposite was true. They insist on constantly sticking their noses into Middle Eastern regional spats. If they’re going to keep doing that, then maybe they could at least try opening their eyes while they’re at it.