Israel’s strikes on Iran are intended to reset deterrence between the countries, preventing a wider war while, somehow, allowing both sides to save face.
If that sounds like mission impossible, it is because the past year shows evidence of a steady climb up the ladder of escalation, resulting in Saturday’s large-scale military action.
The hope that this might mark an end to the trading of missiles can be seen in the announcement by Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari that: “The Israel Defence Forces has fulfilled its mission.” The IDF spokesman added: “If the regime in Iran were to make the mistake of beginning a new round of escalation, we will be obligated to respond.”
Iran’s attack at the start of this month, when about 200 medium-range ballistic missiles were fired at Israel, could not be left unanswered: in the jargon of Israeli securocrats a “re-establishment of deterrence” was needed.
Calibrating that response was difficult. America quickly made clear that it would not support attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities or oil infrastructure, and during the 25 days of consultations that followed the Iranian missile blitz it was apparent that Israel was working closely with the Pentagon.
Editor: Mr. Urban ads a new descriptor to the vocabulary of reporters : securocrats. It will not enter Eric Partridge’s book, but reflects the use of language in propaganda: that imitates actual thought, the end of which are political manipulation.
The first sentence of Mr. Urban’s essay is an apologetic framed as ‘allowing both sides to save face’ and other examples of language used for the ends of propaganda.
Israel’s strikes on Iran are intended to reset deterrence between the countries, preventing a wider war while, somehow, allowing both sides to save face.
Editor: Mr. Urban has framed his commentary. Yet let me offer a selection of the reimaging 1106 word of Mr. Urban’s Neo-Jingoism, its not quite Ernst Jünger but wallows in a kind of pastiche of Jünger !
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Thus, the weapons of choice were F-15, F-16, and F-35 jets carrying long-range missiles — allowing the initial attacks to be launched far from Iranian air defences — and unmanned stealth aircraft.
A leak of US intelligence documents several days ago described Israel’s preparations in detail. American satellites had detected drills in mid-October to fit two types of missile to these jets: one called Golden Horizon, also known as Blue Sparrow, that has a range of up to 2,000km; another, the Rocks, which can be used at a range of up to 300km
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In April, following an earlier wave of Iranian strikes on Israel, one or more of these missiles was used to attack a radar site. Its role is to suppress such air defences while the aircraft that released it remains far away — for example, over Syria.
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Iranian media reported that four soldiers in its air defence forces had been killed. As for phase two, Iranian social media feeds showed damage to two factories making missiles and drone parts, south of Tehran, with reports of other sites being hit in two west Iranian provinces.
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Editor: There is a kind of resignation here, as if the blood-thirsty Netanyahu has not signaled the approach of WWIII!
So is it over now? The White House hopes so, briefing reporters that Israel’s strikes were “targeted and proportionate”, and expressing the hope that this would mark the end of the “direct military exchange” between the two nations. If Iran chooses to hit back, officials said, America would come to Israel’s assistance.
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By sending extra defensive missiles to Israel, warships to the region and promising to deliver more advanced weapons, the White House gained a significant role in shaping the strikes.
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Iran’s air defence force issued a statement saying: “Despite prior warnings to the criminal Zionist regime, its provocative actions led to slight damage, which is currently under assessment.”
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By striking factories on the outskirts of Tehran — at night, to spare large casualties among the workers — the Israelis have demonstrated their ability to brush aside air defences to hit pinpoint targets in the Iranian capital. In subjecting the inhabitants to a night of explosions and uncertainty, they also demonstrated to Iranians the regime’s vulnerability.
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Editor: It’s exhausting to read Mr. Urban’s long explication of the Crimes of Netanyahu, and his gutless American Allies, in a continuing War that can lead to WWIII. There is no comfort in War, nor in the propaganda that nurtures it, yet the once advocates of political rationalism, have become enmeshed in and willfully blind to a not too distant History !
Rootless cosmopolitan,down at heels intellectual;would be writer.
'Polemic is a discourse of conflict, whose effect depends on a delicate balance between the requirements of truth and the enticements of anger, the duty to argue and the zest to inflame. Its rhetoric allows, even enforces, a certain figurative licence. Like epitaphs in Johnson’s adage, it is not under oath.'
https://www.lrb.co.uk/v15/n20/perry-anderson/diary
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