No to War

Ben Wildsmith

It has become a routine experience over the last few years to look at the headlines and have difficulty forcing yourself to accept that they are real.

As the last vestiges of truth in politics have given way to rage-baiting fictions and half-truths, international law has followed suit, with powerful nations secure in the knowledge that the strength of their alliances will nullify the courts.

This morning’s headlines informed us that Israeli Defence Minister, Israel Katz, had declared that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, ‘can no longer be allowed to exist.’

His reasoning for this was that Iran’s supposed strike on a hospital in southern Israel. This is the same Israel Katz who, on Monday, declared that residents of Tehran will ‘pay the price’ for Iranian missiles being fired in retaliation to the initial Israeli attack.

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War crime

When it was pointed out that targeting civilians is a war crime, Katz replied, ‘I would like to clarify the obvious: there is no intention to harm the residents of Tehran.’

It would be surprising if Tehranis took much comfort from this disclaimer, given the current Israeli regime’s form on such matters.

Whilst it is far from clear that Iran targeted the Sorotka Medical Centre, some reports suggest a nearby military facility was hit causing a blast wave, it is absolutely certain that, in the last 18 months, Israel has bombed every hospital that existed in Gaza.

The ’most moral army on earth’ as Katz is fond of calling the IDF, has killed or injured more than 50 000 children in Gaza according to UNICEF. With foreign journalists banned and 180 Gazan journalists killed so far, the world has seen only a glimpse of what is happening, yet it has been enough to create revulsion in all corners of the globe.

The October 7th attacks, which inspired almost universal empathy for Israel, have been overtaken in the public consciousness not because of naïve posturing on the part of Palestinian sympathisers, but because the sheer mathematics of what Israel has done in response are so overwhelming and disproportionate as to create the impression that Israel’s leadership viewed Hamas’s crimes not as a tragedy but an opportunity.

That opportunity has now been ridden to the brink of regime change in Iran. Benjamin Netanyahu has asserted that Iran is ‘months away’ from acquiring nuclear weapons. He has been saying this, complete with presentational graphics, since 1994 at least.

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Verification

The evidence for Iran’s nuclear capability, like the existence of military bases under Gaza’s hospitals, is presented by Israel without international verification. Its circular argument runs that we must trust Israel because the Iranians/Gazans/West Bank Palestians/Houthis/Lebanese/Syrians/South Africans/College Students/BBC/UN/Red Cross/CNN/Irish/Piers Morgan want Israel destroyed. The proof of that is that is that they object to Israel refusing to provide verification for its claims.

And then there’s Trump. None of us know exactly how the US president is compromised, but most of us suspect that all is not what it seems. Yesterday’s ‘nobody knows what I’ll do’ performance suggested that he hadn’t yet been told what to do.

Isolationism

Trump was elected on a platform of opposing American involvement in Middle East wars for any reason. The MAGA movement’s defining characteristic is isolationism yet here Trump is on the cusp of dropping bunker busters on to nuclear facilities without any clear idea of what that will do, let alone what forces would be unleashed in an Iran devoid of government.

There’s nothing we can do about any of this. The involvement of the UK, however, is something to which we have every right to object. Labour’s majority is a statistical freak, brought about by Reform UK splitting the right-wing vote with the Conservatives.

If Labour kids itself that the nation looks to it as our unchallenged moral representative in this, or any other matter, it must be put right. I want nothing to do with an Israeli/American war on Iran. If the UK government involves us in such an enterprise, it does so without mandate.

Eluned Morgan and Rhun ap Iorweth must take the temperature of the Welsh electorate and ensure that a distinct Welsh voice is heard.

My belief is that Wales is overwhelmingly against this war. If our politicians will not express that, then we must do so ourselves and never forget that we were so obliged.