The main military activity and focus of Israel and the world shifted from Gaza to Iran on June 12. Gaza has gone from being a primary theater to a secondary one.
While Israel continues to destroy and kill in Gaza systematically, Israelis are even less interested in it. The war in Iran shifted global and domestic priorities, but the destruction of Gaza, the genocide unfolding there, and the bleeding Palestinian issue remain the heart of the darkness.
Israel today is part of the US global military power projection. The US military controls what happens in the world from 11 command centers (and hundreds of bases). US allies are subordinated to one or more of them. As long as Israel was isolated in its region, it was assigned to the European Command (as in football), where it was alien and irrelevant. During Trump’s first presidency, after the Abraham Accords were signed in 2021, Israel was transferred to the US Central Command (CENTCOM).
This assignment means, among other things, that Israel has direct access to US munitions stockpiles, and that Israel’s air and naval defense systems are integrated into the US regional system located in Arab states. Early warning for entering shelters and intercepting missiles and UAVs are possible thanks to information from satellite systems, radar systems, and US THAAD and Patriot missile batteries stationed in Arab countries along the route between Iran, Yemen, and Israel. The Israeli army trains and fights together with US and Arab forces. Coordination occurs mostly at command levels and in technological branches. Command-level officers study at US schools, learning system management protocols, combat methods, and unified thinking methods. CENTCOM has joint war rooms for Israel and Arab armies. The CENTCOM commander, General Michael Kurilla, and his staff are in Israel almost every month, building personal relationships with Defense Ministry heads and their military counterparts. Commanders-Israeli, American, and Arab—socialize and forge connections (which later sometimes become personal relationships and business ties; see the Qatar Gate affair). Israel sold about 12% of its arms exports to Arab states in 2024. The military remains ostensibly national but synchronized with the US system.
The question of Iran’s nuclearization is almost 30 years old. Israel has been preparing to attack Iran’s nuclear program for about 20 years. Generations of generals who became leaders in all Zionist parties grew up under the consensus of the “necessity” of attacking Iran’s nuclear program. Now they support Netanyahu even from the opposition. Rogel Alpher wrote that the war in Iran “is the ultimate cooperation between the elitist-liberal camp (the pilots, scientists, technology developers) and the Bibist camp” (Haaretz, June 16). The question of whether the US knew of Israel’s intent to attack Iran is naive. There is no doubt that Israel informed the US and received its consent to attack Iran.
The position of the non-Zionist Left on the Iranian nuclear question, in brief, is against the development and use of atomic weapons and against the proliferation of nuclear weapons. We reject the “exceptionism” that Israel demands for itself on this issue. We call for the nuclear disarmament of all Middle Eastern countries. We are against nuclear weapons, for Israel and Iran. We are for a peaceful solution and against the race for nuclear monopoly or mutual destruction.
Iran has likely reached a nuclear-threshold stage and possesses nearly all the components for one or more bombs. After canceling the Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran in a previous term, Trump is now negotiating with the Islamic regime on a new agreement to halt and roll back its nuclear program (ceasing enrichment). The US permitted Israel to attack, bomb, and eliminate targets on the surface but prevented it, to our knowledge, from using large bunker-busting bombs. Israel can certainly damage the nuclear program but not destroy it. This ace card was withheld from Netanyahu by the Americans, and they hold it tightly. Netanyahu is a tool in negotiations. Trump plays the “good cop” and assigns Netanyahu the “bad cop” role. Netanyahu stars as the attack dog. Trump admits he knew of Israel’s intent but keeps distanced and detached from Netanyahu, leaving himself the option of stopping him if necessary.
The operation in Iran has three stated goals: Elimination of Iran’s nuclear program, elimination of the missile and UAV array and regime change in Iran. Israel is barred from eliminating Iran’s nuclear program; this role was left to Trump, and he will decide whether it is achieved—and if achieved, by military means or negotiations, and on what terms. This uncertainty greatly worries the regime in Israel.
Eliminating the missile and UAV array scattered across Iran—60 times larger than Israel—is a prolonged and expensive process. Israel may be able to bomb Iran, but the cost of operations 2,000 km away is enormous. With smart use of “launch economy,” Iran could wage a war of attrition, disrupting Israel’s economy and life for an extended period and causing unprecedented losses and destruction—all after two years of prior war.
Currently, Netanyahu is trying to expand destruction in Iran: from nuclear facilities, radar systems, and missiles to damaging national infrastructure and symbols of power. Israel is trying to provoke Iranians into an aggressive anti-American response that would push Trump (and his Western allies) into war. Even within Trump’s party, there are disagreements: the isolationist MAGA faction opposes war with Iran, while other Republican senators support Israel. Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the US has avoided a ground invasion of Iran—a long, costly war whose end no one can predict.
In Israel, we are assured with criminal nonchalance that the Iranian people are waiting to revolt and overthrow the regime. We heard a similar story about Hamas. In the event of a US invasion, it is more likely that most Iranians would resist foreign invasion, as happened during the Mossadegh era (in 1952) and when the US invaded Saddam Hussein’s Iraq (in 2003). The Israeli Right would surely say Iranians are Khomeinists and must all be destroyed. We oppose the Ayatollahs’ regime, but it is not for the West or Israel to “liberate” Iran at gunpoint; the Iranian people must do it.
War itself solves no crisis. Both in Iran and Gaza, continuing the war serves Bibi and maintains his survival. The war in Iran is a distraction. Instead of stopping the war in Gaza, Netanyahu has given us another “goat” [trouble], another war. Netanyahu’s government piles crisis upon crisis to buy time. Yesterday, the far-right government declared a “special state.” In this state, the military temporarily takes power. As of yesterday, we are not in a democracy but under military rule where assembly and protest are banned. We will not stop protesting; we will find more ways to protest until the war stops, we must leave Gaza and Iran, end the occupation, and make a just peace: Israelis- Palestinians-Arabs-Kurds-Iranians in a democratic, equal, and nuclear-free Middle East.
* Sociologist Professor Avishai Ehrlich is a member of Hadash (Democratic Front for Peace and Equality). This article was first published by Zo Haderekh, Communist weekly in Hebrew.
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