Netanyahu’s long -held attack on Iran is also a welcome lightning rod

At three in the morning the air alarm went off in Israel and a telephone emergency report was sent out. This was not about an incoming attack, but about the upcoming Israeli attack on Iran.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu carried out his long -held wish to attack Iran without explicit support or permission from the US? In recent weeks, that question hung over the American-Iranian negotiations on Irans Nuclear program in Oman, which would be resumed on Sunday.

In the night of Thursday on Vrij day, the answer to that question came. The prime minister had several air strikes performed on military and nuclear goals in Iran. Several Iranian military leaders, scientists and citizens were killed.

In the meantime, the Israeli population was prepared for an expected counterattack. Minister of Defense Israel Katz proclaimed the state of emergency, the Israeli airspace was closed, thousands of reservists were called, and the population was instructed to follow and stay inside instructions from the authorities.

For Netanyahu, the attack is a welcome distraction from his domestic problems. The attack follows a week in which his government was averted and early elections in the nick of time. Internationally, the criticism of the genocidal violence in Gaza is growing.

In an English speech on Friday morning, however, Netanyahu Irans nuclear program called a « clear and present danger to Israel’s existence » and a « nuclear Holocaust ». Netanyahu has been warning for years in a bombastic way that Iran is about to produce nuclear weapons – it is a public secret that Israel itself has nuclear weapons. In 2012, Netanyahu did this in the general meeting of the UN with a picture of a bomb in hand and an argument about the « final phase » of Irans Nuclear production. On Friday he was able to add this argument extra strength: earlier this week the atomic energy agency IAEA concluded that Iran has violated the non-proliferation treaty.

Threatening cabinet

However, tensions in his cabinet also seem to have contributed to the decision to seek confrontation with Iran. This week, Ultraorthodox coalition parties threatened to vote with a motion from the opposition to dissolve the parliament, in a fight that revolves around service. The Israeli Supreme Court determined in the summer of 2024 that the exceptional position that has been in place since 1948 had been in place for the (growing) Ultraethodox Jewish population when it comes to military service. On Tuesday night, the coalition parties were persuaded at the last minute: the motion did not make a majority.

In addition, there are still lawsuits against Netanyahu because of corruption, which he would like to shift with a created Iran crisis. Internationally, Netanyahu also hangs an arrest warrant above the head of the International Criminal Court in The Hague because of alleged war crimes in Gaza.

It will not be bad to Netanyahu that the international attention for the attacks on Gaza and forced displacement of the population, which continues in full force, now focuses on elsewhere: the damage in Iran, the expected counterattack, and what help Israel will receive from the US and other allies.

In Gaza, Israel closed the communication network this week, making it even further insulating the Palestinian population from the outside world. Israel also continued his severe bombing of Gaza this week and again killed the Israeli army at dozens of Palestinians at distribution points of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation supported by Israel and the US.

Following the attack on Iran, the oppression of the occupied West Bank was also further performed on Friday in the context of the emergency situation in Israel. The Israeli army announced on Friday morning that it is one there lockdown Persons on Palestinian cities and strengthens his troops. In recent months, the army has made various raids in Palestinian cities and refugee camps, in which infrastructure and houses have been destroyed and tens of thousands of Palestinians have been driven out.

Conference UN postponed

The attack on Iran came on the eve of an international conference on the two-state solution in Israel and Palestine, organized by France and Saudi Arabia, which would take place next week at the general meeting of the UN in New York. The conference could count on disapproval from Israel and the US, and the Trump government discouraged foreign governments to attend. On Friday evening, anonymous sources told Reuters news agency that the conference is postponed by the attack on Iran.

Last Tuesday, Netanyahu sent another video message into the world that there would be « significant progress » in negotiations on an agreement for a ceasefire in Gaza. That message may happen, especially prior to the vote in the Knesset about the motion, from the desire to keep his government together.

In Israeli media, Israeli officials predicted on Friday that the attack on Iran may bring a Gaza agreement closer because this Hamas, as an ally of Iran, is further insulating. The fact that US President Donald Trump may have been aware of the plan for the attack and possibly supported for this, however, Hamas’s confidence in the negotiations will not do well. An Israeli official said to the Times of Israel That there was a versatile Israeli-American campaign of misinformation in the past week to convince Iran that there was no future attack: « Trump played the game together with Israel ».

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