[rad-green] Bibi’s Get-out-of-Jail Card … War With Iran

*https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/11/24/bibis-get-out-of-jail-card-war-with-iran/
<https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/11/24/bibis-get-out-of-jail-card-war-with-iran/>*





*Strategic Culture Foundation          November 24, 2019Bibi’s
Get-out-of-Jail Card… War With Iran*


*Finian Cunningham*
[image: image.png]
*© Photo: Flickr/statephotos*

It seems more than coincidence that as the legal noose tightens around
Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, Israeli military have suddenly
stepped up air strikes on Iranian forces based in Syria.

Playing the strongman role on national security and winning another term as
prime minister would stave off prosecution over pending corruption
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/11/israeli-pm-netanyahu-indicted-corruption-charges-191121162648301.html>
 charges.

If Netanyahu is ousted from office he will be immediately subjected to
trial. A subsequent conviction on all charges could result in him facing up
to 13 years in jail. A lot is at stake for Israel’s elder statesmen. At 70
years old, he is the longest-serving prime minister in the history of the
Israeli state, having been elected four times already.

Therefore the longer he can hang on as premier, the longer he can postpone
his day in court, as the leadership position affords a certain immunity
while in office.

Israel’s current political impasse is a particularly dangerous time for
Netanyahu. After two elections held earlier this year, neither Netanyahu
nor his nearest rival Benny Gantz have been able to form a coalition
government. Netanyahu is still the sitting PM. But lawmakers could vote for
a new prime minister in the next few weeks, or else failing that the
country will be forced to go to a third election in March next year.

Either way, Netanyahu needs to stay in office if he wants to throw the
prosecution trial into the long grass. That means the temptation will be
ever-stronger for the hot-headed commando-turned-politician to rile up
security tensions with Iran and Syria, as well as neighboring Palestinians.
Netanyahu has always drummed up votes by presenting himself as the great
defender of Israelis.

Over the past week, as a three-year criminal investigation concluded with
charges being leveled
<https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-50512102?ocid=global_bbccom_email_22112019_top+news+stories>
against
Netanyahu for bribery, fraud and abuse of power for favorable media
influence, Israeli forces under his command launched deadly air strikes
against Iranian targets in Syria. Reports indicated
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/at-least-11-killed-in-syria-strikes-7-of-them-likely-iranian-war-monitor-says/>
that
around 23 people were killed, most of whom were Iranian military belonging
to the elite Quds Force. Though Syrian media claimed that most of the
attacks were intercepted. Whether Iranian personnel were killed or not, the
Israeli intention is to provoke Tehran.

Notably, Israeli military usually do not confirm or deny when they carry
out air strikes on Syria or neighboring countries. This week, however,
Israeli leaders including Netanyahu were bragging about the strikes.

Netanyahu said: “I have made clear that any who attack us, we will attack
them. That is what we did tonight [November 20] toward military targets of
the Iranian Quds Force and Syrian military targets.”

The Israelis claim they were responding to rockets fired from the Golan
Heights. But it seems those rockets were provoked by earlier Israeli
strikes on Syria just days before.

There is more than a suspicion that Israel was orchestrating the pretext
for a flare up in violence. The purpose being to allow Netanyahu to dust
off his war medals and flex his muscles for the electorate.

Such a ploy is in keeping with how Netanyahu over recent months has been
cranking up the bellicose rhetoric. Before the elections this year in March
and September, he has been declaring that if he is re-elected his
government would annex large swathes of the Palestinian territory in the
West Bank. In spite of international law and UN resolutions designating
Israeli settlements as illegal.

US President Donald Trump obliged Netanyahu’s electioneering when the White
House announced
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/18/us-israeli-settlements-no-longer-considered-illegal-palestinian-land-mike-pompeo>
on
November 18 that Washington was henceforth recognizing all Israeli
settlements on Palestinian territory as legitimate. Was this Trump shifting
US policy to help bail out his friend Bibi, knowing that the indictment
sheet was on the way?

Over the past month, Israeli forces have also escalated air strikes on Gaza
with dozens of civilians being killed, including families and children.
Netanyahu has been cynically winding up fears among Israelis of rocket
attacks from Palestinian militants in the besieged Gaza strip. A densely
populated area of 1.8 million people subsisting in poverty, deprived of
fresh water and electricity, due to Israel’s military cordon.

But in ginning up tensions with Iran in such a provocative way by targeting
its elite Quds Force in Syria, Netanyahu is playing with fire.

Russia condemned <https://sana.sy/en/?p=178813> the Israeli air strikes on
Syria last week as unlawful aggression. The Russian foreign ministry warned
that such acts were risking a wider conflict in the region.

Again, Trump seems to be aiding and abetting Netanyahu’s agenda of inciting
national security tensions with Iran in order to hand Netanyahu a
get-out-of-jail card. No doubt Trump knows the feeling as lawmakers in
Washington push an impeachment inquiry into his alleged abuse of authority
for favors regarding Ukraine.

The dramatic eruption of street violence in Iran over the past week has
seen provocateurs hijack public protests over fuel price increases. The
rapid spread of arson attacks on public property and shooting dead of
several Iranian security force members indicate a foreign role in agitation.

President Trump and his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued stark
statements
<https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/trump-iran-twitter-eu-protets-rouhani-impeachment-a9213126.html?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=INDNEWS#22112019&utm_term=IND_Headlines_Masterlist_CDP>
of
interference in Iranian internal affairs, by encouraging further street
disturbances, hypocritically claiming that the US “was standing with the
Iranian people”.

Brian Hook, the White House’s special envoy for Iran, even went as far as
openly admitting
<https://www.rferl.org/a/envoy-for-iran-says-u-s-working-to-help-iranians-bypass-internet-shutdown/30280082.html?ltflags=mailer>
that
the US has been working for the past 18 months on finding ways of helping
anti-government activists to circumvent internet restrictions imposed by
the Iranian authorities to quell the spread of disturbances.

“We have been able to get into the hands of the Iranian people
circumvention tools that allow them to communicate with each other when the
regime tries to censor them,” said Hook.

Last week, Trump told
<https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/11/20/611665/Russia-US-Saudi-deployment>
Congress
that he was sending 3,000 US troops to Saudi Arabia to “prevent Iranian
provocation”, another move which Russia slammed as provoking regional
tensions. Meanwhile, the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group
entered the Persian Gulf.

Trump and Netanyahu seem to be working hand-in-hand to ratchet up tensions
with Iran. Evidently, Netanyahu is betting that the sound of war drums will
drown out the calls for his prosecution trial over corruption charges. But
rather than facing justice, the Israeli leader seems prepared to ignite a
war with Iran just to save his own hide.

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