Iran’s Mockery of an Attack on Israel Benefits Israel and Biden
By: Bishara A Bahbah / Arab America Featured Columnist
Iran’s televised and choreographed missile/drone/rocket attack on Israel on April 14 will go down in history as one of the most comical attacks by one country on another.
The so-called “massive” attack on Israel has benefited only Israel and Biden. Iran, as time will tell, will suffer greatly from this attack. Israel and the United States manipulated Arab countries such as Jordan, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia. Jordan will suffer the most severe consequences that could put the Hashemite regime in peril.
No military attack intended to exact damage on an enemy could have been designed while giving the enemy the exact timing and nature of the attack. That is precisely what Iran did. Israel, the United States, Britain, and even Jordan participated in downing more than 99 percent of those missiles/drones/rockets used to attack Israel, and Israel’s partners appeared to have defended Israel “valiantly.”
The Winners of Iran’s Attack on Israel were Israel and Biden
Israel has emerged as the biggest winner of this widely anticipated and openly orchestrated Iranian attack.
Before the attack, Israel had lost its standing among a majority of nations and was becoming a pariah state. Israel was seen as a perpetrator of genocide against Palestinian civilians in Gaza and was politically isolated worldwide. It had killed over 33,000 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly civilians, and injured over 76,000 others. It destroyed 80 percent of the Gaza Strip, including its infrastructure, housing, universities, mosques, and hospitals. It used starvation as a political weapon, leading to a major humanitarian crisis with over one million Palestinians at the starvation level.
On April 1, 2024, an Israeli airstrike on Iran’s consulate complex in Damascus killed several high-ranking Iranian officials, among others. Embassies and consulates of countries are considered by international law as the sovereign territories of those countries.
Iran considered this attack crossing many red lights and felt compelled to retaliate.
No one in the West condemned Israel’s attack on Iran’s consulate. Yet the West rose in unison to condemn and defend Iran’s declared attack on Israel, the first attack by a foreign country on Israel since 1991 when Saddam Hussein attacked Israel with Scud missiles.
Benefits to Israel
- Iran’s retaliatory yet shady attack on Israel was able to divert international attention from the atrocities the latter has been committing in Gaza. Israel was even losing its European supporters who were calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the provision of all necessary humanitarian aid.
- Israel was able to rally the United States and its Western European allies to come to its defense at a time when the relations between those countries and Israel were in the abyss.
- Israel was able to claim a victory from the jaws of defeat by successfully shooting down 99 percent of Iran’s drones/missiles/rockets lobbed toward Israel with Western and some Arab countries’ support.
- The United States either coerced or convinced Jordan to participate in Israel’s defense – a move that would haunt Jordan’s king.
- The United States was able to get the Emiratis and the Saudis to share intelligence for Israel’s benefit on Iran’s preparations for an attack on Israel – creating a shadow alliance between Israel and several Arab countries.
- Israel, for the first time in years, complained to the UN Security Council against Iran. Israel has been repeatedly the subject of complaints at that UN body.
- Israel and President Joe Biden viewed Iran’s failed attack as a golden opportunity to push the US Congress to advance a bill authorizing $14 billion in additional military aid. This is considered a massive gift to Israel since U.S. law limited military aid to Israel to $3.8 billion under a ten-year agreement signed during Barack Obama’s last year in office.
- By all measures, Israel lost the war against Hamas. Israel has never had to fight an enemy for an extended period. Yet, the apparent success of Israel in fending Iran’s attack seems to have given it that sense of confidence that it had lost.
- Finally, Iran’s attack, albeit coordinated and orchestrated with Western countries, has given Israel a “legitimate” pretext to want to retaliate and knock out Iran’s nuclear facilities using the stealth F-35 fighter jets that would escape detection by Iran’s antiquated air defenses.
Benefits to President Joe Biden
- President Biden was able to shore up Israel’s international standing, which had suffered as a result of Israel’s war on Gaza.
- Biden was able to create an alliance of Arab and Western countries to help “defend” Israel against Iran’s so-called “massive” attack. Such an alliance would not have been possible without the threats coming from Iran.
- Biden used Iran’s attack to advance his request to provide Israel with $14 billion in additional military aid. Israel was running low on ammunition and had lost more armored vehicles, tanks, and munitions than it publicly reported.
- Biden will use his support of Israel during this crisis with Iran to bolster his support among American Jewish voters and donors to his presidential campaign. Biden is now hoping that his support of Israel would help shore up critical Democratic voters who were angered over Biden’s “ironclad” support of Israel during its war on Gaza.
- Pro-Israel Republicans were happy over the coalition that Biden had amassed to defend Israel. This would help Biden with the House’s three-pronged military assistance bills to help Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan, among other allies.
- Biden’s appearance as the commander-in-chief in the situation room at the White House and his leadership in convening and running an emergency meeting of the G-7 countries would help dispel the notion that he is frail, too old to be in command, and unfit for a second term as president.
The Losers
Iran, Jordan, the Palestinians, UAE, and Saudi Arabia were losers in this high-stake war game.
Iran
On the surface, Iran might have kept its “promise” to retaliate against Israel’s attack on its consulate in Damascus. Iran was admittedly able to demonstrate a show of force.
Iran informed Saudi Arabia and the UAE of its intent to launch the attack and when it would launch it. The United States coerced those countries to reveal the intelligence they had gathered on the launch time and scope.
According to U.S. sources, half of the 350 drones/missiles/rockets directed at Israel failed on launch. The remaining were intercepted by Israel, its Western allies, and Jordan.
Iran, stupidly or intentionally, televised the launch of some of its missiles and rockets, allowing Israel and Western countries plenty of time to knock them all out except for five, which hit two military bases in southern Israel.
The attack has now empowered Israel to want to retaliate. The retaliation will assuredly come, and it will be directed by stealth F-35 fighter jets against major Iranian military installations.
Iran effectively fell into the trap Israel had prepared.
Jordan
Jordan, according to Israeli sources, allowed Israeli jets to enter its airspace to destroy the missiles/drones/rockets over Jordanian airspace. Jordan made the fateful mistake of allowing its air force to participate in confronting Iran’s attack on Israel.
The Fars news agency reported that Iran’s armed forces had warned they were “carefully monitoring the movements of Jordan during the punitive attack against the Zionist regime.” Iran vowed to target Jordan if it would participate in defending Israel.
With the majority of its Palestinian population, Jordan could not afford unrest emanating from helping defend Israel at a time when Israel was committing genocide against their people in Gaza.
Jordan is suffering from a severe economic slump that has affected the standard of living and employment among Jordanians.
Social media outlets have started depicting King Abdullah of Jordan wearing an Israeli army uniform – not a flattering sight among his Palestinian population.
What happens in Jordan has yet to be seen. Seeing people in the streets demanding the Hashemite kingdom’s overthrow would not be far-fetched.
Palestinians
Events surrounding Iran’s attack on Israel have overshadowed the tragic suffering of Palestinians in Gaza. Despite the additional aid that Israel is allowing into Gaza, it is a drop in the bucket in terms of the immediate humanitarian needs of Gazans, let alone the reconstruction of Gaza or Israel’s withdrawal from the Strip.
Because of Iran, countries now rallied in support of Israel, and if this state of affairs continues, Gaza could fall into oblivion.
Palestinian affairs in the West Bank have been deteriorating by the day. Only last week, Israeli settlers rampaged through ten Palestinian villages when news that a young settler was killed. The West Bank is sitting on a massive keg of powder, which, if ignited, could open up another war front that Israel and the Palestinians could ill-afford. However, Palestinians cannot be the sole nation in the world living in limbo and under a brutal occupation.
Gulf Countries
Iran entrusted its plans against Israel to both the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The United States twisted the arms of both of these countries to divulge Iran’s plans and share intelligence, directly or indirectly, with Israel.
Iran knows what has transpired, which could strain relations between Arab Gulf states and Iran.
Conclusion
To conclude, the Iran saga has helped none other than Israel, the target of Iran’s laughable assault. Biden, the Zionist-in-Chief in the United States, might have won this battle along with his Israeli allies. However, when the entire region explodes into utter chaos, taking Israel down with it, Biden will belatedly realize that his collaboration with a fanatic Israeli government like the current one headed by Benjamin Netanyahu and the thugs serving in his cabinet could only lead both Israel and the United States down the path of disaster.
About the Author: Dr. Bishara Bahbah is a senior fellow and distinguished columnist at Arab America.com. He is president of the Palestinian American Congress, the most prominent political organization in the United States representing Palestinian Americans and their allies. Dr. Bahbah taught at Harvard University, where he was associate director of its Middle East Institute and served as a member of the Palestinian delegation on arms control and regional security.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Arab America.
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