Israel has accused Iran of doing many nefarious things. But the historical record shows that whatever Israel accuses Iran of, it is likely that Israel is already doing it.
For example, Israel has repeatedly accused Iran of destabilizing the region by malignantly spreading across the region and forming alliances and exercising influence in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.
But Israel is spreading across the region by forming alliances and exercising influence across the region. With varying degrees of formality and publicity, Israel has expanded its network and formed alliances with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. And this Israeli spread has been destabilizing both in terms of increasing weapons in the region and legitimizing and solidifying occupations.
The agreement between Israel and the UAE meant F-35 fighter jets, Reaper drones and EA-18G Growler jets that are capable of jamming enemy air defenses for the UAE and a large weapons package for Israel in compensation, potentially including combat helicopters, advanced communications satellites, bunker buster bombs, F-35s, KC-46A tanker aircrafts that are capable of refueling many aircrafts simultaneously and V-22 aircrafts that can transform form helicopter to airplane.
The agreements have also led to the solidifying of occupations in the region. And it is not only the solidifying of the Palestinian occupation. In order to extract an agreement from Morocco, the price was US recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara: an occupation that is illegal under international law. Both the UN and the International Court of Justice have ruled in favor of Western Sahara’s right to self governance.
Israel is also reportedly planning to lobby the US not to pressure Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE over human rights issues because of the value Israel places on these alliances in confronting Iran. Israeli officials reportedly want to remind Washington that the agreements they have signed in the region should be prioritized over concerns about human rights.
Spreading its influence across the region sounds a lot like what Israel is accusing Iran of. And Israel’s spread has been destabilizing in terms of the proliferation of arms, the legitimizing of occupations and the acceptance of human rights abuses.
Using Proxies
Israel has long accused Iran of using proxy forces in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.
But Israel has a distasteful history of using proxy forces going back at least as early as the proxy use of the Phalange militia in Lebanon. Not wanting to be seen sending Israeli soldiers into the Palestinian refugee camps, Israel used its proxy Christian militia. According to Patrick Tyler, in A World of Trouble, the Phalange militia developed “with covert assistance from Israel.” In September 1982, the Israeli proxy Phalange militia slaughtered hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of Palestinian refugees in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. Israel admits to 700 people massacred; the Palestinians claim 2,750. In Balfour’s Shadow, David Cronin places the number at between 800 and 3,500.
More recently, Israel has employed the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK) as a proxy in the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists. Investigative journalist Seymour Hersch reports that a former senior intelligence official told him that the assassinations are “primarily being done by MEK through liaison with the Israelis.” Most recently, Iran has suggested a proxy role for the MEK in the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.
Israel accuses Iran of using proxy forces. But Israeli history demonstrates the well documented use of proxy forces to carry out some of its most illegal work.
Terrorism
Israel has forcefully tried to characterize Iran as a leading state sponsor of terrorism.
But Israel has recently aligned itself with the most barbarous terrorists. Israel has allied itself with the Islamic State and al-Nusra. In September 2013, Michael Oren, the Israeli Ambassador to the US said, “We always wanted Bashar Assad to go, we always preferred the bad guys who weren’t backed by Iran to the bad guys who were backed by Iran.” Oren told the Jerusalem Post that “This was the case . . . even if the other ‘bad guys’ were affiliated with al-Qaeda.” Nearly a year later, in June 2014, Oren would repeat Israel’s position of preferring the Islamic State and al-Nusra over Assad: “From Israel’s perspective, if there’s got to be an evil that’s got to prevail, let the Sunni evil prevail.” A year and a half later, Defense Minister Moshe Yalon would essentially reiterate this firm Israeli preference.
And Israel didn’t just root for the Islamic State, it aided it. Israel has repeatedly bombed Syrian targets, and UN observers in the Golan Heights have reported witnessing cooperation between Israel and Syrian rebels. Netanyahu has also revealed that Israel has hit Hezbollah forces fighting against the Islamic State and al-Qaeda in Syria dozens of times. And it has been exposed that Israel also provided funding, food and fuel to Syrian rebels fighting Assad.
In The Management of Savagery, Max Blumenthal says that “ISIS found a defender in Israel.” He reports that the director of “the Likud Party-linked Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies” advocated for pursuing the “weakening of Islamic State, but not its destruction.” They called ISIS a “useful tool.” There are reports of coordination and communication between Israel and al-Nusra, including Israel providing maps.
So, Israel is doing exactly what it accuses Iran of doing.
Nuclear Weapons
Most vociferously, Israel has accused Iran of possessing a nuclear weapons program and of secretly constructing nuclear weapons facilities.
It is well known that Israel has a nuclear weapons program. A leaked email written by Colin Powell suggests that the US estimates Israel’s arsenal at 200 nuclear weapons.
What has received less attention amid the cries that Iran has secretly built nuclear facilities is that Israel is secretly building on to the nuclear facility it secretly built. Satellite images published in February, 2021, show that Israel has been “carrying out a major expansion of its Dimona nuclear facility” for at least the past two years.
So, while Israel accuses Iran of secretly pursuing a nuclear weapons program and secretly constructing nuclear facilities, Israel is secretly pursuing a nuclear weapons program and secretly constructing nuclear facilities.
Attacking Ships
Back in 2019, Iran was blamed for two limpet mine attacks on ships. Israel has also blamed Iran for a recent explosion on the Israeli cargo ship MV Helios Ray. Iran has denied responsibility for the attack.
But it looks like Israel has been very busy blowing up Iranian ships. The Wall Street Journal has shockingly reported that, since late 2019, Israel has attacked at least a dozen ships headed for Syria and carrying Iranian oil. Israel has attacked Iranian vessels or vessels carrying Iranian oil with weapons that included mines. At least some of the Israeli attacks have been carried out with limpet mines: exactly like the attacks Iran is accused of. The Wall Street Journal reports that three of the Israeli strikes took place in 2019 and six more took place in 2020.
As in the case of regional influence, use of proxies, terrorism, and constructing secret nuclear facilities, Israel seems to be guilty of the very thing it is accusing Iran of: blowing up ships. This boomeranging accusation is consistent with a historical pattern of Israel accusing Iran of the very things Israel is doing.
A very good article giving perspective to the hypocrisy shown by Israel, and the hypocrisy of the US too when it keeps parroting the same lame narrative as the zionists, and pretends that Israel is the victim here, under constant threat by Iran. Of course Israel is guilty of whatever it accuses Iran of, whichever angle you look at it. In fact Israel could be worse because for one thing, Israel is NEVER sanctioned like Iran is, and gets away with murder, because it’s wealthy Uncle Sam sends billions of dollars, and the latest weapons, so that Israel can continue it’s bloody occupation, endless crimes against unarmed civilians, land theft, and the building of illegal settlements. Israel is also protected militarily, and at the UN from being condemned or sanctioned.
The US conveniently ignores the very same crimes committed by Israel, for which Israel should have been boycotted and sanctioned decades ago. Countries like the US, the UK, and the EU, are complicit in ALL Israel’s crimes. If they want to sanction, boycott, or penalize other nations, they should start with their favorite charity case first, it would have more impact on others.
Right now the world sees the hypocrisy, and many are still willing to work with Iran.
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“It seems that the Journal relied mainly on the Biden administration for its information. The leak may reflect U.S. dissatisfaction with Israel’s operations against Iran, as it attempts to renew negotiations with Iran over the return of the United States to the nuclear accord. The report should also encourage Israel to hold some serious discussions over the wisdom of its new policy. It’s unclear to what extent the systematic harming of vessels causes real damage to Iran and Hezbollah. A further question is whether it is leading to a heating up of tension in an area in which Israel is also vulnerable to sustaining significant damage.
“Senior naval officers, supposedly the ones responsible for these attacks, are the ones who always stress Israel’s economic dependence on maritime traffic, which carries 99 percent of the goods reaching Israel. Embarking on open economic warfare in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea could increase insurance premiums on all maritime commerce in the area in general, and for Israel in particular.
“There may also be a legal issue at play. According to the report, Israel is employing military measures against civilian vessels traveling in international seaways. Could this expose Israel to international court actions, just as proceedings in The Hague open a new front, as Israel faces an investigation for war crimes committed in the occupied territories?
“A marginal issue is the attempts made to link the latest American report to the serious incident in which Israel’s and Lebanon’s beaches were polluted last month by oil spilled in the Mediterranean. According to the official Israeli investigation, there is a high probability that the incident involved an oil tanker smuggling a pirate shipment of oil from Iran. This inspired the Minister for Environmental Protection, Gila Gamliel, to blame Tehran for waging an environmental terror campaign against Israel. In contrast, a claim made in recent days has attributed the oil spill to a mishap on the part of the IDF, in which another strike against an Iranian tanker went wrong, causing unprecedented damage.
“As far as Haaretz could establish, both these claims are wrong. The defense establishment in Israel has no knowledge of a deliberate Iranian move designed to pollute Israel’s shoreline through an oil spill. There was also no malfunctioning attempt to harm an Iranian vessel, supposedly leaving Israel innocent of polluting its own beaches.”
“Israel accuses Iran of using proxy forces. But Israeli history demonstrates the well documented use of proxy forces to carry out some of its most illegal work.” Well, Hamas started as an Israeli proxy force:
https://theintercept.com/2018/02/19/hamas-israel-palestine-conflict/
WHAT DO YOU know about Hamas?…That it’s sworn to destroy Israel? That it’s a terrorist group, proscribed both by the United States and the European Union? That it rules Gaza with an iron fist? That it’s killed hundreds of innocent Israelis with rocket, mortar, and suicide attacks?…But did you also know that Hamas — which is an Arabic acronym for “Islamic Resistance Movement” — would probably not exist today were it not for the Jewish state? That the Israelis helped turn a bunch of fringe Palestinian Islamists in the late 1970s into one of the world’s most notorious militant groups?
That Hamas is blowback?
This isn’t a conspiracy theory. Listen to former Israeli officials such as Brig. Gen. Yitzhak Segev, who was the Israeli military governor in Gaza in the early 1980s. Segev later told a New York Times reporter that he had helped finance the Palestinian Islamist movement as a “counterweight” to the secularists and leftists of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Fatah party, led by Yasser Arafat (who himself referred to Hamas as “a creature of Israel.”)….
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“Israel’s Reported Attacks on Iranian Tankers Expose It to Greater Risks”
“Newly revealed attempt to hit Iranian oil trade to Syria provides a belated glimpse into the economic war between Israel and Iran” Amos Harel. Haaretz. Mar. 13, 2021
“The report published by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday about Israel’s operations targeting Iranian ships explains many of the developments that have taken place in the Middle East over the last two years. It also provides, belatedly, a glimpse of the economic war that has been going on for some time between Iran and Israel.
“According to the report, Israel is behind 12 attacks against tankers carrying Iranian oil to Syria, starting in 2019. Some of these attacks were carried out by attaching naval mines to the vessels’ hulls, causing damage but not sinking them. These attacks disrupted the supply of oil to Syria, and foiled Iran’s plan to use proceeds from these deals to buy weapons for Hezbollah. The Wall Street Journal confirmed earlier claims made by Syrian and Iranian agencies, such as the ones relating to an explosion that occurred on an Iranian tanker in the Red Sea in fall 2019.
“Meanwhile, Iran announced on Friday that another ship was damaged last week by an explosion, somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea, and on Saturday accused Israel of it. The latest reports provide context to another incident that occurred at the end of February in the Gulf of Oman, when a naval mine was attached to a ship owned by Israeli businessman Rami Ungar. In this case, Israeli sources blamed Iran.
“The exposure of the order of incidents by the Wall Street Journal clarifies that the attack attributed to Iran in the Gulf is not, apparently, directly linked to the controversy over Iran’s nuclear program. This was also not an Iranian retaliation for last November’s assassination of the head of Iran’s military nuclear program, Prof. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, attributed by Tehran to Israel. The latest operation was more specific, constituting a tit-for-tat assault, aimed at settling scores with Israel for attacking Iranian oil tankers. (cont’d)
Let’s not forget state sponsored cyber hacks, attacks, intrusions, and intelligence gathering. Or blatant threats and calls of destruction. Or radical religious supremacy, Sharia Law, and Jewish Jihad. After all, what else is the combination of Zionism, settler colonialism, and the Nation State law, but the open call and enforcement for Jewish ethnic supremacy between the river and the sea, Halakha, and the wholesale destruction of the Jewish State’s perceived enemies, both foreign and domestic.