This is not between Israel and Iran; there is genocide in Gaza

That Iran's 1 April retaliation for Israel's bombing of the Iranian consulate building in Damascus and the killing of its senior generals did not, in its outcome, disappoint anyone is in itself a reflection of the tragic situation we find ourselves in.

That any power might respond, one way or another, to the expectation that has formed in the world of a rescuing intervention against Israel's genocide in Gaza, which is about to reach its seventh month with unparalleled savagery, is, in spite of everything, very valuable. But the tragic side is that Israel itself, with great appetite, wants this intervention, especially from Iran. Because the US and Europe, on whose unlimited support it relies even in all its crimes against humanity, are likely to begin reducing their support, probably not because of the gravity of the crime but because of the incompetence in the crime, as the genocide operation has dragged on longer than necessary. The possibility that an Iranian attack would rapidly shift the matter from the Hamas-Israel axis to the Iran-Israel axis would itself be a rescuing support for Israel and especially for Netanyahu.

It is very clear that Iran's anti-Israel stance has so far not actually harmed Israel in any way. Within the likely history of their tension, the profit-and-loss balance is evident for both. For Iran, hostility to Israel, and even to the US, is extremely functional for the consolidation of the regime at home. When the regime is a little hard-pressed by the opposition, a tension created with Israel or the US comes into play as a means that restores the state of emergency within a short time.

Iran's threats toward the Gulf are also extremely functional for the US. The Iranian threat, which has never produced an actual situation, serves to ensure the Gulf countries' uninterrupted and unlimited dependence on the US in the field of defense. On the other hand, as a result of the operation launched against Saddam Hussein, who in Iraq had become heavily armed and had acquired war capabilities and in this state had begun to pose a real threat to Israel, Iraq was handed over, as if on a golden tray, by the US to Iran. The story of how the result came about can of course be written otherwise if one wishes, but the other stories would be very forced.

Since 7 October, Israel has tasted defeats it has never experienced in its history. Its legendary intelligence organization has become a laughingstock. Its iron dome, said never to let anything through, has turned into a sieve. Its super army, built with the support of the world's superpower, the US, is suffering rout upon rout before the Qassam Brigades. Of course it continually tests its weapons' capacity for mass destruction and massacre, and the more it flounders to hide this defeat by committing massacres on the scale of genocide, the deeper it sinks.

The Egyptian thinker Fahmy Howeidy, who after a break of about 7 years following the Arab Spring process began writing again on Aljazeera.net after 7 October, thinking he could not remain a mere spectator to what was happening, has included many quotations expressing the perception on the Israeli side of what has happened since 7 October. For instance:

"Israel has been completely defeated. The aims of the war will not be achieved, the captives will not be brought back by military operation, and security will remain a hard-to-obtain goal" (Haaretz, 13 April).

"The era of Israel's victories has ended, and Hamas wanted to inform us that there is another Arab besides the one we saw at Camp David or Oslo" (Amnon Abramovich, leading political analyst of the Hebrew media, 13 January).

"The war has ended for us in a strategic defeat, and now we are in trouble" (Haim Ramon, former Minister of Justice – 11 April).

"Israel lost the war against Hamas. The only picture of victory we have is the overthrow of Netanyahu and the holding of new elections" (Dan Halutz, former chief of staff of the occupation army – December 2023).

"Exactly six months have passed since the war began, and Israel needs to calculate its path. All the goals presented to us show that the road is very far from being reached" (Yoan Limor, political commentator of Yedioth Ahronoth).

"Hamas has not only defeated Israel, it has also defeated the entire West" (Alon Mizrahi, journalist-writer, 5 April).

"If we do not integrate into the Middle East arena, there is no life for Israelis. The collapse of all military, humanitarian and technological defense systems on 7 October taught us that we cannot rely only on our military power and capabilities. (Amnon Levi, Yedioth Ahronoth 6 April).

These statements show very well that, despite all the insolent and arrogant attitude of Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu, their situation is not at all good. In the adventure into which for 7 months he has plunged both himself and his American and European friends, Netanyahu has failed to reach any of the goals he promised and is stuck. It was no secret that he was seeking a way out of Gaza, which has become a complete trap for him, by expanding the war in a controlled manner. That is why, before Iran's retaliation, came the attack that provoked Iran.

His attack on Iranian targets in Damascus out of the blue, his forcing Iran to join the game, in fact leaves Iran no other option. It was of course not possible for Iran to brush this attack off as if nothing had happened. But the picture that emerged at the end of the day is this:

Israel, which had lost its support in the US and Europe because of the crimes of genocide it committed in Gaza, suddenly found itself cast in the position of victim, and all these countries condemned Iran by issuing messages of solidarity with Israel. European countries that had not issued even a condemnation of the crime of genocide it had been committing for months hastily condemned the Iranian attack, which produced no result and did not cause the death of even one person.

Moreover, because of this scuffle, the genocide being carried out in Gaza suddenly dropped off the agenda, and a situation arose as if the issue were no longer between Gaza and Israel but between Israel and Iran. In such a situation, Israel's European friends, who until now had begun to hesitate to stand by it because of its excessive guilt, began to express their support for Israel again, openly and more strongly, in the dispute that had turned into an Iran-Israel equation.

Of course this must not be allowed to unfold this way. Any attempt to drop Gaza from the agenda is help to Israel, and a betrayal of humanity.