By Farrukh Abadi
An Israeli airstrike on an Iranian consulate in Syria killed 13 people on April 1. Among the killed are 7 officers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, including Brigadier-General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander of Iran’s Quds Force, along with 6 Syrians. The killing of Zahedi, along with his deputy Brig-Gen Mohammad Hadi Haji-Rahimi, is one of the highest-profile assassinations against Iran since the US’s killing of General Soleimani 4 years ago. Iran has promised retaliation against Israel while also stating that the US “remains directly responsible whether or not it was aware of the intention to carry out this attack.” The airstrike was carried out by F-35 fighter jets purchased from the US.
The strike represents the continuation of Israel’s failing assassination strategy against its enemies. The recent assassinations of high-ranking Hamas and Hezbollah militants has only served to strengthen the resolve of the resistance and further isolate Israel. Since its assassination of Saleh al-Arouri—a deputy leader of Hamas—in early January of this year, Israel has failed to make any progress in its efforts at defeating Hamas while continuing to suffer military defeats and further isolation.
Israel lashing out at Iran is likely aimed at drawing Iran more directly into conflict so as to provoke US intervention. Last week, a UN resolution was passed for the first time officially calling for a ceasefire. In an attempt to give itself a PR boost, the US abstained from the vote rather than vetoing it. However, the US changed the wording of the resolution from “permanent” to “lasting” ceasefire—specifically to last for two weeks.
The US has made more than 100 arms sales to Israel since October 7, and Biden is currently requesting Congress to approve a $14 billion military package to Israel on top of the $18 billion he has previously requested. Combined, the military aid requested by Biden just over the past few months represents over a tenth of the total amount of economic and military aid the US has given Israel since its founding in 1948. A former senior Biden administration official has stated that “the Israeli campaign would not be sustainable without this level of U.S. support.”
Israel is also not yet ready to end its genocide either, and has only intensified its killing of civilians in spite of the UN resolution.
Israel’s desire to provoke US intervention against Iran is not baseless. In response to the airstrike, former CIA senior official Ralph Goff stated that “the Israelis are writing checks that U.S. CentCom forces will have to cash.”
Monopoly media in the US and elsewhere have been drumming up public support to justify such an intervention. These days any organization that attacks Israel is painted by the media as “Iran-backed” or an “Iran proxy.” This labeling aims to deny the self-determination and legitimacy of these groups, to portray them as rabid and fanatical terrorist hordes under the dark sway of Iran. They deny the revolutionary potential of these anti-imperialist struggles while at the same time they attempt to prepare public opinion for war against Iran, something US imperialism has been aspiring toward since the 1979 Iranian revolution. To the US, Iran represents a market to expand further into, a population to exploit and oppress, and a means to encircle and isolate Russian and Chinese imperialism. It also represents an enemy, someone who the US can blame for everything in the region and justify US intervention against any of these “proxies.”
On the other hand, countries that are actually proxies of US imperialism—those dominated by US capital and as a result act according to the interests of US imperialism—are portrayed as legitimate. A recent New York Times article on the Israeli airstrike says: “the strike is a vivid demonstration of the regional nature of the conflict as Israel tries to diminish and deter Iran’s allies and surrogates that threaten Israel’s security from every direction.” Israel is portrayed as a victim surrounded by a sea of Iranian allies and surrogates. Another recent article published by The New York Times compares Iran to a “species of parasitoid wasp” that US imperialism must kill by “setting fire to the whole jungle.”
photo: The consular section of the Iranian embassy in Syria after Israel’s airstrike, Syrian Arab News Agency
