On June 13, Israel launched an unprovoked war against Iran. The surprise attack began just after 3 a.m. on Friday, the start of the weekend in the Middle East. As missiles rained on Iranian cities, destroying entire residential blocks and killing scores of civilians, a video message from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was posted on social media platforms. Like something out of an Orwellian nightmare, the man who is on the International Criminal Court’s wanted list for crimes against humanity in Gaza stared into the camera and spoke of making the world \u201ca much safer place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Only the most hopelessly gullible would put any stock in Netanyahu\u2019s claim that Iran was on the verge of perpetrating a \u201cnuclear Holocaust\u201d against Israel. Both the International Atomic Energy Agency and the U.S. intelligence community recently concluded that Iran does not currently have a program to build nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n
But Netanyahu has made a career out of crying wolf. In 1992, alleging that Iran was three to five years from the atomic bomb, he urged the U.S. to help end Iran\u2019s nuclear program. In 2012, he said an Iranian bomb was six to seven months away. By 2015, it was supposedly a matter of weeks.<\/p>\n
Though he has now convinced U.S. President Donald Trump to join Israel in fighting the big bad Iranian wolf, Netanyahu can\u2019t pull the wool over everyone\u2019s eyes. For almost two years, the world has witnessed a genocide unfold in Gaza. We have also heard Israeli cabinet ministers talk of dropping atomic bombs on Gaza\u2019s besieged and starved population. The negative global public opinion toward Israel \u2014 as indicated in a recent Pew Research Center report \u2014 should come as no surprise. In Korea, no less than 60 percent of those surveyed see Israel in a negative light.<\/p>\n
Despite facing accusations from international organizations, including an independent U.N. Commission, of committing war crimes in Gaza, Israel still enjoys undeterred U.S. support. On June 22, with Trump\u2019s announcement of U.S. strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities, the war officially became a joint Israeli-American adventure. The Israeli press had already reported that the initial Israel strikes had been coordinated closely with Washington, and that the monthslong U.S. nuclear negotiations with Iran were part of a \u201cdeception campaign\u201d aimed at lulling Iran into a \u201cfalse sense of security.\u201d<\/p>\n
While they may not always see eye to eye, the U.S. and Israel share the goal of fundamentally altering the balance of power in the Middle East. For Washington, this means reasserting dominance in the oil-rich region at a time when American hegemony is challenged by reemerging powers such as China and Russia. For Tel Aviv, it means establishing regional supremacy through the country\u2019s nuclear advantage. Israel is the only country in the Middle East to possess nuclear weapons, and one of the very few countries in the world to have never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.<\/p>\n
To preserve its nuclear advantage, Israel has gone to great lengths; from covert operations against Egypt\u2019s nuclear program in the early 1960s, to airstrikes against Iraqi and Syrian nuclear facilities in the 1980s and the 2000s. Since 2010, Israel has assassinated several nuclear scientists and carried out cyberattacks on nuclear facilities in Iran.<\/p>\n
Israel also launched a lobbying campaign in Washington against a 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers, which allowed Iran to maintain low-level uranium enrichment under international monitoring. In 2018, Washington withdrew from that agreement, setting the scene for the current confrontation.<\/p>\n
Beyond his stated goal of destroying Iran\u2019s nuclear and missile capabilities, Netanyahu also hopes for what he calls \u201cregime change\u201d in Tehran. In his June 13 video address, he said the attack on Iran gave Iranians an opportunity to secure their \u201cliberation\u201d from the \u201cbrutal dictatorship\u201d of the Islamic Republic. His choice of words was a nod to another Israeli slogan used to justify its recent actions: In Gaza, Israel is helping to free Palestinians from Hamas.<\/p>\n
To say that many Iranians are fed up with their rulers is an understatement. Social and political repression, combined with an abysmal economic condition aggravated by suffocating U.S.-imposed sanctions, have engendered deep grievances. Several nationwide protest movements in recent years have put the state\u2019s crisis of legitimacy on full display. But Iranians, having once experienced the horrors of war, know that bombs and missiles bring neither freedom nor prosperity \u2014 only death and destruction.<\/p>\n
Similar anxieties prevail throughout the Middle East. Iran\u2019s Persian Gulf neighbors worry about being caught in the crossfire or impacted by possible environmental and nuclear contamination resulting from attacks on Iranian oil and nuclear facilities.<\/p>\n
There are other concerns as well. Already in Israel, there is talk of Turkey being the next nemesis. And who after Turkey? Israel\u2019s nuclear arsenal makes all other regional actors jittery. In a joint statement condemning Israel\u2019s aggression, 21 Muslim-majority countries also called for nuclear disarmament \u201cwithout selectivity\u201d \u2014 a reference to the Western double-standard when it comes to Israel\u2019s nuclear weapons. The double-standard may backfire in the end, compelling more countries in the region to seek nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n
For Korea, which is determined to expand strategic partnerships in the Middle East, the current situation cannot be taken lightly. Already, the country imports more than 70 percent of its crude oil from the Middle East, operates a nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates and is in talks with Saudi Arabia and Turkey over other potential nuclear power plant deals. Contrary to what many Koreans may think, the Middle East is not a faraway land. The reverberations of Israel\u2019s latest war might be felt here sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n