The New York Times paraphrased Israeli columnist Nahum Barnea this week. He notes that it is possible to house four positions in one brain.
For instance:
- Be horrified by the images of violence and loss of life in Gaza and believe that Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir should be behind bars for war crimes;
2. Be supportive of Israel’s war on the brutal Iranian regime and cheer its astonishing successes;
3. Be appalled at Trump’s casual cruelties, lies, corruption, and bullying at home in the US; and
4. Applaud his political high-wire act in bombing Fordow, firmly and decisively signalling his conviction that Iran would never get a nuclear weapon.
It is possible, but difficult, because people want to support a team—whether it be pro-Israeli, pro-Palestinian, pro-Trump, or anti-MAGA. People want to choose a side and bray and shout like supporters at a football match, no matter the behaviour on the field.
But the world does not operate this way, and the ability to see things as they really are requires normal citizens, like me, to try to ignore intuition, gut-feel, and our deeply ingrained worldviews in order to analyse events according to their objective merits.
This is where I find myself, careening this way and that as each news report comes in, trying to separate my head from my heart.
Israel’s attack on Iran
Let’s take Israel’s attack on Iran. When the Ayatollah landed in Tehran in 1979 after the Shah fell, he outlined two core ideals for the new order. The first was his vision of an Islamic state. The second was his objective to wipe Israel off the face of the map.
This has been repeated daily in Iran for 45 years—in speeches, papers, media, schools, universities, and street corners.
It is difficult to digest: that a government should have as one of its founding policies the destruction of a sovereign country thousands of miles away. I cannot find any precedent for this.
This is the backdrop of every one of Israel’s eight million citizens’ view on Iran, a country they have never once threatened, but which wants to destroy them.
Ignore Netanyahu and ignore Gaza if you can. Ignore grand theories about global backroom superpower plays. Rather, put yourself in the position of those in Israel tasked with national defence in view of the daily threats.
There is an old saying that essentially states: when someone says they are coming to burn down your house, believe them. So when (in the last few weeks) the IAEA sanctioned Iran for cheating on its nuclear obligations, and when Iran responded by throwing its toys out of the cot and saying it was going for 60% uranium purity and everyone be damned, it was over.
Sixty percent purity is way in excess of the requirements for civilian nuclear use—no other non-nuclear country has ever got close. You would only do that if you wanted to make a nuclear weapon.
Didn’t matter
It didn’t matter whether Iran was 30% of the way there or 80%. It didn’t matter whether they had developed a delivery system or other infrastructure. It didn’t matter that Israel had been warning of this for 30 years. The die was cast—that bomb was somewhere along the production schedule, and it had one and only one target: Israel, a small country with a concentrated population.
It appears that Israel had no choice; it was a just and morally defensible action, notwithstanding other matters. The entire neighbourhood, including some of Israel’s detractors, was quietly cheering. Nobody else wants a nuclear-equipped Iran either.
Now let’s try to ignore all other Trump matters and consider the US strike. There is a narrative that Israel “dragged” the US into the war, or that Netanyahu “played” Trump. This is utter nonsense. Being asked to join an Israeli attack on Iran represents about as large a favour as one country can ask of another. Its implications and risks are massive, including the possibility of WWIII.
To think that Trump was put in a trance and blindly led into this truly requires magical thinking. It was done with careful forethought, and one cannot always say that about the US president. This time was different—there was too much at stake.
When the US went in, the operation was flawless. They were undetected, hit their targets, and went home. That too should be cheered. No American lives were lost (and probably not many Iranian lives, if any). Mission accomplished. No one in the region will now be eager to start development on a nuclear weapon. (Israel, of course, already has them).
The problem here is that if you really cannot bear Donald Trump, you probably also cannot bear the fact that this was a huge win for him and the region.
And if you really hate Israel, you cannot bear the notion that they are walking away from this stronger and perhaps even safer (although that remains to be seen long-term).
The cognitive dissonance is deafening for all of us, I suspect—even for the most level-headed of observers. But it is a small price to pay for trying to see things clearly.
The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR.
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Image: reve.ai