The Empire Strikes Out: Israel’s Iran Plans Backfire Again!

Right, so when you’ve started one war and one genocide, bombed half of the Middle East besides, and still can’t win any of it, whilst having lost every ounce of goodwill you ever had around the world, maybe the problem isn’t your enemies—it’s your own delusions. Israel’s war machine, long touted as invincible, is now sputtering against an Iranian opponent it provoked and underestimated, because it isn’t invincible, its simply US backed. What began as a calculated ‘pre-emptive’ strike has morphed into a chaotic misfire: infrastructure crumbling under missile fire, global shipping giants now pulling out from trading with you, and even Israel’s own war chiefs warning the public to brace for the long haul. Meanwhile, Netanyahu isn’t just fighting a war abroad—he’s fighting reality at home, cracking down on journalists and branding anyone who speaks the truth a traitor. It’s not just a war; it’s a slow-motion collapse of credibility and of Israeli society as Israelis know it, not that many of them are actually Israeli having opted to now go home instead of living in somebody else’s house. And the louder the war drums beat, the more the world is seeing through the racket.
Right, so the grand narrative of unchallenged Israeli strength has begun to unravel. Israel’s military campaign against Iran—a war initiated by Benjamin Netanyahu and carried forward by his horrendously hard-right and hawkish coalition government—is now visibly blowing up in their faces. Military shortages, infrastructural collapse, international hesitancy, and an escalating crackdown on civil liberties have combined to erode both internal confidence and external support and that’s before you even get to what Iran is doing to them. At the heart of this deteriorating situation lies the same force that has defined Israeli policy for decades: an aggressive, militarised obsession with domination, backed by western complicity, combined with a more than adequate sprinkling of paranoia. Now, the cracks are too wide to paper over.
From the outset, Netanyahu sold this conflict as a defensive necessity, warning of Iran’s supposed nuclear ambitions and framing the campaign as a pre-emptive strike to protect Israeli civilians, to take out Iran’s nuclear facilities, they might be hours from a nuclear weapon now, after 30 years of Netanyahu having been saying the same thing. Yet reality tells another story: this war has not only failed to halt Iran's resilience, but has come at an exorbitant financial, military, and diplomatic cost to Israel. What is more, it is exposing to the world that Israel is not the impregnable power it claims to be, and that Netanyahu’s messianic militarism has turned into an unprecedented liability, not just for Israel but other governments who support them.
At home, Netanyahu has launched a sweeping media crackdown, using wartime as cover, as excuse to clamp down on civil liberties, free speech, freedom of the press, preventing journalists from reporting on infrastructure failures, intercepted supply chains, or military setbacks; or at the very least trying to. These censorship efforts have been accompanied by thinly veiled threats: those who tell the truth about the scale of damage or the government’s strategic missteps are accused of "aiding the enemy." Such tactics are reminiscent not of a robust democracy under pressure, but of a regime desperate to maintain a crumbling illusion of control. Journalists who once operated freely now face arrest for saying something the regime disapproves of. Civil society, too, is under siege, as protests against the government’s actions in Gaza and Iran are met with increasing repression.
The material cost of war is now mounting beyond the government’s capacity to contain. Iranian missile and drone strikes have caused widespread damage, most notably at Haifa’s port and its oil refinery. Danish shipping giant Maersk has suspended operations at the port due to the damage and risk of further attacks, a move that has sent shockwaves through Israel’s trade and logistics sectors. While Maersk has offered alternative arrangements, the very fact that a major global logistics player long criticised for aiding Israel is abandoning Israeli ports now citing safety concerns with regards to Iran speaks volumes.
Militarily, Israel is floundering as well. Its much-vaunted air defence systems, like the Iron Dome and Arrow missile interceptors, are reportedly running low on critical munitions, set to run out within days. Despite receiving fourteen weapons shipments from the United States and Germany since the conflict with Iran began, Israel is facing shortages that suggest unsustainable burn rates and logistical mismanagement. Israel allegedly having to pick and choose which missiles they now intercept coming from Iran. In contrast, Iran has shown no signs of missile depletion and continues to target Israeli infrastructure with increasing precision.
These arms shipments are not without political cost to those supplying them though. The United States and Germany, who have supplied these most recent shipments, by supplying weapons to a country engaged in an unprovoked and arguably illegal military campaign, have made themselves complicit in its conduct. Germany in particular is facing internal backlash. A recent survey shows that the majority of Germans, 57% now hold a negative view of Israel—which is an historic turning point for a country that once viewed support for Israel as a moral imperative following both World Wars. German civil society, intellectuals, and even lawmakers are beginning to question whether continued arms exports to a state engaged in systematic violations of international law are consistent with the country’s post-war commitment to human rights, but as with most pro Israel governments,. Despite the obvious being written on the wall, they’re desperately trying to scrub it out and find workarounds to continue supporting Israel, so many of them bought and paid for and in hoc to vested interests.
Even as the war with Iran rages on, Israel continues its genocidal campaign in Gaza. With over 55,000 Palestinians killed, most of them civilians, the humanitarian catastrophe has only intensified. Entire neighbourhoods have been levelled, hospitals bombed, and aid convoys targeted. The United Nations has once again included Israel on its list of grave violators of children’s rights in armed conflict, second year running for that. Yet instead of halting its campaigns or seeking international mediation, Netanyahu has doubled down, framing the genocide of Gaza as a fight for Israel’s survival while overseeing a programme of state violence that amounts to collective punishment and ethnic cleansing. On top of that civilian infrastructure being targeted in Iran now is only seeing Israel as an increasing violator of children in armed conflict.
International diplomacy remains paralysed as a result of Israel still crying victim as justification of its growing atrocities. Iran has made clear that it will not return to nuclear negotiations as long as Israel continues its attacks. Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi recently met with counterparts from Germany, France, and the UK—countries that continue to supply Israel with arms—to express this position. While these European powers claim to be urging restraint, their dual role as arms suppliers and diplomatic brokers makes a mockery of their neutrality. Iran, for its part, continues to point to the fatwa issued by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 2003, which forbids the development of nuclear weapons. This fatwa has been corroborated by the International Atomic Energy Agency and US. intelligence assessments, yet is routinely dismissed by Israeli and pro-Israel Western leaders who continue to push the narrative of an imminent Iranian nuclear threat, just reiterating the Israeli narrative.
Donald Trump, the big orange oaf is at least still refusing to commit to direct military intervention despite Netanyahu’s increasingly desperate overtures. Having viewed satellite imagery of Israeli strikes on Iran's nuclear infrastructure, which reportedly show minimal damage, Trump is said to have concluded that Israel is incapable of defeating Iran without US bunker-busting munitions and US bombers to go with them. Nevertheless, he continues to peddle the disproven claim that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, even contradicting his own intelligence agencies and publicly undermining Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard in the process. Gabbard, letting herself down in light of this as well, has defended Trump, but has hedged her language—implying that Iran could enrich uranium to weapons-grade levels, a claim that ignores both the fatwa and existing international oversight of course.
Trump’s hesitancy has nothing to do with any sense of moral clarity, but of political pragmatism. His MAGA base, along with the broader American public, is overwhelmingly opposed to new foreign wars. Polling suggests that any decision to join Israel in attacking Iran would cost Trump crucial support. Nevertheless, his refusal to accept Iran’s non-nuclear status leaves the door open to intervention, particularly if Israel intensifies its lobbying and strikes escalate further, Trump kicking this matter down the road for another couple of weeks now.
A potential US entry into the war with iran would have profound consequences for the other Gulf states. Hosting numerous US bases as they do, countries like Qatar, Bahrain, and the UAE would become immediate targets for Iranian retaliation, should they allow the US to operate from said bases. These states would face an existential dilemma: continue to host American forces and risk domestic unrest and military strikes upon them, or expel them and strain their strategic partnerships. Either choice would fundamentally reshape the security architecture and the political alliances of the region.
The UK, under Keir Starmer's leadership, is almost certain to back the United States should it enter the conflict. British bases such as RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus or Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean could be used to launch strikes against Iran. This would represent a dangerous escalation and signal Britain's willingness to once again act as Washington's lap dog in a war of aggression with catastrophic regional and possibly global consequences and would be us here in the UK engaging n another war we’ve no business in, learning nothing of the lessons of Iraq and indeed would have wider global implications as a consequence. If Iran were to close the Strait of Hormuz in response to US and UK strikes, as it has threatened to, the resulting disruption to global oil and gas supplies would send shockwaves through an already fragile global economy and if you thought prices had spiked before, you won’t have seen anything yet.
This war is illegal. Under international law, Israel’s attack on Iran constitutes a violation of the UN Charter, which prohibits the use of force except in self-defence or with Security Council authorisation. Neither condition has been met. Moreover, the scale of civilian harm, the assassination of nuclear scientists, and the targeting of civilian infrastructure all constitute grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions. Israel should be facing international sanctions, arms embargoes, and further International Criminal Court indictments with relation to Palestine, Iran, like Israel are not Rome Statute members. Instead, it is emboldened by the silence and complicity of its allies though.
And regardless of ongoing western inaction right now, the situation is deteriorating further. In the last 24 hours alone, Israel has struck Tehran’s Organisation of Defensive Innovation and Research, as well as surface-to-air missile batteries in western Iran. Defence Minister Israel Katz openly stated that the military has been instructed to intensify attacks on “symbols of the regime” and “mechanisms of oppression,” signalling a pivot away from nuclear deterrence towards a campaign of regime destabilisation. Another Israeli drone strike has reportedly targeted another nuclear scientist, suggesting that extrajudicial assassination still remains a central tool in Israel’s strategy.
What we are witnessing is not the defensive war Israel claims, but a long-planned campaign of militarised regime change cloaked in the language of security. Its consequences are severe and global. Civilian suffering in Gaza and Iran is intensifying. International law is being eroded as it doesn’t get defended. The risk of a regional conflagration involving the US, UK, and Gulf states is increasing by the day. And all of this is being waged by a state that faces no accountability from anyone, save right from Iran militarily.
If there is any hope for justice, it lies not in the empty promises of diplomatic backchannels, but in public mobilisation. Citizens across the US, UK, Germany, and beyond must demand an end to arms sales, an immediate ceasefire, and international accountability for war crimes. The time has come to stop treating Israel as above the law. The world cannot afford the consequences of continued appeasement. It is time to act—not just for Gaza or for Iran, but for the very future of international order.
Speaking of, as missiles have rained down on Tel Aviv, Benjamin Netanyahu’s 30 year dream of crushing Iran has grown into an even greater nightmare given recent Iranian responses, so get all the details of that story here as your recommended next watch.
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