Let me start by saying I have no love for the Iranian regime, which is a blend of patriarchy, religious tyranny, and misogyny. This regime has used the Koran not as a religious text but as a cudgel against the aspirations of its people. I also have no love for the current Israeli government, which I have referred to as the Reich, for its genocide in Gaza, where the death toll is heading inexorably toward 100,000, and the relentless ethnic cleansing that continues in the West Bank. The IDF soldiers kill hundreds of innocent Gazans queuing for food with impunity and see a person carrying a loaf of bread as a threat to their lives while encouched in a tank. Equating the IDF activities with the Gestapo would be a fair comment, especially when Yari Golan suggests that the IDF are killing babies for a hobby.
So, what is happening? Netanyahu is using the political strategy known as the dead cat strategy to divert the international community’s and media’s attention from the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and internally to undermine Israel’s democracy Israel and to ensure his political survival. This dead cat is Iran and its nuclear program, and to be clear, this dead cat is a result of Trump, under pressure from Netanyahu in 2018 to pull the US out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, designed by a coalition of countries to stop Iran from enriching uranium to the level required for a nuclear weapon, in return for sanctions relief. Surprisingly, it was working; however, it was agreed by the then US president Barack Obama, he was the one that Trump alleged was not born in the US. Israeli propaganda has deliberately conflated the uranium enrichment level for a nuclear weapon with weaponisation and intent with capacity. Just to be clear, Israel is not simply targeting nuclear facilities; it wants regime change. Regime change initiated from the outside will end in chaos, having huge implications for regional security, regional economies, and the rest of the world. It is also important to note that the US Director of National Intelligence earlier this year said Iran was not building a nuclear weapon. Furthermore, Netanyahu has been banging on about Iran’s imminent possession of a nuclear weapon in terms of weeks and months for 30 years.
Trump and his Monster Raving Lunney cabinet are upping the ante by threatening to assassinate the Supreme Leader and use their bunker-busting bombs to put an end to Iran’s nuclear ambition, and with a wee bit of regime change thrown in. Let us be clear, regime change as a goal does not have a good track record, just look at Iraq and Afghanistan. Not exactly the way you get a Nobel Peace Prize.
It seems the praying for Armageddon crowd has infested the Republican Party and turned the White House into the Oregon State Hospital. Trump embraces Putin, scolds Zelensky, supports the Fuhrer in Israel, can’t make a deal to save himself as exhibited by his tariff policy, an America First agenda that is incomprehensible, uses the US military to subdue its citizens, ignores the Judiciary, sees the US presidency as an opportunity to make a “Few Dollars More” and at the same time has created a new Putin style oligarchy; I suggest that my piece should be called Three Rogue States.
What is clear is that no one wants the Iranian regime to have a nuclear weapon capability and especially one that vows the destruction of Israel. In addition, the local Sunni autocrats, including the Saudis, the UAE, Egypt, and Oman, are fearful of a theocratic Shia state having such a weapon. Iran is economically a basket case, its people have suffered after years of sanctions, its military is no match for the IDF, its skies are free for Israel’s F-35s to come, bomb and go as they please, and it may run out of missiles at the current rate of usage. Its proxies, particularly Hezbollah, have been neutered, Mossad assassinates senior military commanders and scientists at will, and the Revolutionary Guard has been diminished, so that they can only perform the function of suppressing their own people. Like, in my Letter to Hamas, I suggest that the Iranian regime accept the reality that Israel is here to stay. So, stop the stupid rhetoric about the obliteration of the Zionist state and recognise its right to exist, as a first step to self-preservation. The decision by the Iranian regime to support Putin’s war in Ukraine was, at best, stupid, but I suppose birds of a feather do flock together, especially if the flocking together has nothing to do with the welfare of their people.The Iranian regime needs to stop acting as if they have international political leverage, like threatening to pull out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), who cares, and Donald needs just to stop talking, as everything that comes out of his mouth is absurd, and he had the audacity to criticise Biden.
What is the solution? again, it is down to the people of Israel, the people of Palestine and the people of Iran to change the region. Firstly, remove the current Israeli Reich, the Palestinians come together with one voice, and the Iranian people do what they did in 1979, but this time create a democracy. Easier said than done, but there is no other way.
Finally, I have just listened to the Moral Maze about Israel’s missile strikes on Iran in which Giles Fraser, a priest and polemicist whom I generally respect, sounded like a crazy warmonger, and a guest called Jake Simons who would sit comfortably in an Israeli cabinet that includes Netanyahu, Katz, Gvir and Smotrich. Both guys shed no light on the issue, but did talk a lot of, !hite.
Suneil Sharma
19th June 2025
The Gob 
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