ISRAEL VS IRAN — IS THAT ALL THERE IS?

 

19 April 2024 by Larry Johnson 

Time to break out the Peggy Lee classic, “Is That All There Is?”

Shortly after 10pm eastern last night (Thursday), all hell broke loose on U.S. cable news programs. News anchors jiggled and gesticulated to the “BREAKING NEWS” Mambo. Israel Strikes Iran with Missiles, was the refrain blared out every few minutes with the kind of urgency that suggested the end of the world was nigh.

I was in the unique position of having just appeared on Iran’s English language news channel, Press TV, to discuss Israel’s new claim that Iran had targeted the Dimona nuclear facility in Israel and that it had suffered some “minor” damage. I checked back in with my Press TV point of contact and was informed they were puzzled by the U.S. claims and were working to verify what, if anything, had happened. Shortly thereafter my contact passed on word that it was a small drone attack and all the drones had been shot down before reaching the target.

I turned back to U.S. cable news and the report was updated with the words, “limited strike.” It was at that point that I realized we might be in the midst of a 

Shortly after 10pm eastern last night (Thursday), all hell broke loose on U.S. cable news programs. News anchors jiggled and gesticulated to the “BREAKING NEWS” Mambo. Israel Strikes Iran with Missiles, was the refrain blared out every few minutes with the kind of urgency that suggested the end of the world was nigh.

 I was in the unique position of having just appeared on Iran’s English language news channel, Press TV, to discuss Israel’s new claim that Iran had targeted the Dimona nuclear facility in Israel and that it had suffered some “minor” damage. I checked back in with my Press TV point of contact and was informed they were puzzled by the U.S. claims and were working to verify what, if anything, had happened. Shortly thereafter my contact passed on word that it was a small drone attack and all the drones had been shot down before reaching the target.

I turned back to U.S. cable news and the report was updated with the words, “limited strike.” It was at that point that I realized we might be in the midst of a massive propaganda offensive directed at the American public. I checked out the news coverage at RT and at Al Jazeera. Nothing. No flustered news readers desperately trying to scare the hell out of viewers.

Within three hours of the first reports, live video feed appeared on Telegram showing the situation at Iran’s military base outside of Isfahan — all was calm and no sign of smoldering ruins. What a contrast with Israel’s initial reports in the aftermath of the 14 April Iran drone and missile barrage — Israel declined to show any live feed from the supposedly “undamaged” airfields hit by Iranian ballistic missiles.

The remarkable thing about the reporting in the U.S. on the alleged Israeli attack, the reporters on FOX, CNN and MSNBC were quoting Israeli military sources vouching for the “successful” strike. Back in Israel, convicted terrorist and extremist member of Netanyahu’s government — Itamar Ben Givr — was trashing the Israeli “strike” as lame. It is reported he has come in for some heated criticism for not falling in-line and reading from the approved script that Israel had launched an important, but prudent, retaliatory hit on Iran.

This “attack” on Iran has all the markings of a scripted piece of political and military theater — Israel strikes and Iran, “out of fear”, declines to strike back. The reality is that Iran, probably at the behest of Russia or China, agreed not to act on its previous threat to launch a massive retaliatory strike if attacked by Israel.

Some in Israel are pretty miffed at the Biden Administration for spilling the beans. According to the Jerusalem Post:

That said, officially, Israel will not accept responsibility for this attack for strategic reasons. Sources explain that the Iranians claim it was an “explosion at a factory” because they wish to avoid escalation. Israeli sources told the Post that it’s unclear why the Pentagon disclosed to the American media that Israel was involved; they could have remained silent, they say. They could have preserved Iran’s dignity and avoided escalating the situation on their own.

At the Kirya base in Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the entire security and diplomatic leadership have been present for 24 hours, coordinating with regional partners in Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.

Chalk this up as one more foreign policy debacle by the Biden team. Israel wanted to calm political waters at home by carrying out an “attack” that could easily be denied but satisfy domestic pressure to hit back at Iran. Iran, for its part, was content to shoot down the small quadcopters and not be forced to hit Israel with a counter-punch that would have risked a major regional war. Iran’s restraint in the wake of this “strike” has won it some important diplomatic credibility among its Arab and Turkish neighbors.

https://sonar21.com/israel-vs-iran-is-that-all-there-is/

Ray McGovern and I discussed this event today during our weekly Roundtable with the Judge. Enjoy.