The country that can do anything

The country that can do anything

Israel is plunging into a war with Iran under flimsy pretexts, and its
Western allies are guilty of complicity.

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms Iran's indiscriminate

attack on Israeli territory.” This was the statement made by Foreign

Minister Johann Wadephul a few hours after Israel launched its

large-scale air offensive against Iran. The absurdity of such a

distortion seems obvious, but it does not seem to register with the

leaders of Western countries, who continue to affirm their support for

Israel, thereby making it clear that The government of this country

can get away with practically anything. The official reason for the

attack is Iran's nuclear program, which raises the question of whether

Israel is not sitting in a glass house. In the end, as always, it is

the populations of both sides of the conflict who suffer.



by Wolf Wetzel



[This article posted on 6/17/2025 is translated from the German on the

Internet, https://www.manova.news/artikel/das-land-das-alles-darf.]





In November 2024, I wrote this article:



We have earned World War III



“Nothing is more thoroughly prepared than wars that break out

suddenly” (author unknown).



“We can watch, participate, or desert” (author known to me).



By “we,” I did not mean all those who have no say in matters of war or

peace, but rather all the war elites in the “West of values” who want

to prevent the end of US-dominated world domination.



Now Israel, which has been engaged in a war of self-defense all over

the world for decades, has escalated its latent war of assassinations,

sabotage, and military strikes wherever they may be into an open war

against Iran.



The reason, they say, is Iran's nuclear program, which is working

toward acquiring nuclear weapons.



If anyone knows how to convert a civilian nuclear program into a

military one, it is the West. This applies not only to Israel, but

also to Germany, which wanted to close this military cycle with the

“reprocessing plant” (WAA) in Wackersdorf.



Israel continues to emphasize with great hypocrisy that it does not

possess nuclear weapons. Anyone in Israel who claims otherwise and can

prove it is silenced.



Now, a few days ago, the Iranian government announced that it is in

possession of documents confirming that Israel has a military nuclear

program—with the full support of all those states that do not want to

know about it.



The Israeli attacks on Iran have been coordinated with the US and

certainly with other imperial powers in the West. Trump has confirmed

this in all his loudmouthedness by declaring his crazy “60-day

deadline” to have expired and that Iran must now bear the

consequences.



Iran has rightly described these massive military attacks as a

declaration of war.



A state of emergency has been declared in Israel, which does not

protect the population, but only the Israeli war cabinet.



It must be said, however, that the war elites are already taking care

of ensuring that the war does not kill them. Benjamin Netanyahu's

presidential plane has already been spotted in the sky heading towards

X. Left behind are the people who, by and large, support or reject

Israel's war course.



In fact, the Israeli war cabinet has now opened up the hell it

inflicts on others every day to itself.



What if Israeli nuclear facilities were bombed as a legitimate

military target to defend against a war of aggression? Nuclear

facilities that don't even exist?



Complicit reporting



Since Russia started fighting on Ukrainian soil, German media have

been saying in every news flash that it's a “war of aggression.” No

one says that about Israel's attack on Iran. Not once has anyone

mentioned that it's a war of aggression that violates international

law. Instead, this war, which has been planned for a long time by

propaganda and military means, is being sold to Germans as a

“preventive war.”



So you could say: when the wrong people start a war, it's a war of

aggression. When the right people do it, it's a preventive war.



Even the long-stated war aim of destroying Iran's nuclear facilities

would be a war crime, a flagrant violation of international law, if

Russia could be accused of it. But when Israel does it, the reporting

is full of understanding, combined with a complete reversal of the

facts and the claim that Iran itself is to blame.



Der Spiegel summarizes Germany's complicity in war crimes as follows:



“Many talks, great concern — but no criticism of Israel: For

Chancellor Friedrich Merz, dealing with the escalation in the Middle

East is a foreign policy test. Merz emphasizes how threatening he

considers Iran's nuclear program — and does not condemn the Israeli

attack. This puts him in a similar position to French President

Macron.”



War criminal accomplices



What Chancellor Merz does not say, his CDU colleague Roderich

Kiesewetter, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, says openly

and in a manner that is relevant under criminal law:



“Israel's targeted attack on nuclear facilities and high-value

military targets is necessary and serves the security of the entire

region” (Post, June 13, 2025).



Apart from the fact that Kiesewetter considers himself a colonial

administrator for the “entire region,” his hurrah for “high-value

military targets” is particularly repugnant: This obviously includes

Iranian nuclear scientists who were also murdered in the course of

this war of aggression.



CDU Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, currently in Cairo, also finds

warm words for a country that, out of sheer “will to defend itself,”

still has enough capacity to attack Iran: After the attack on Iran,

Germany will once again “stand in solidarity” with Israel.

_______________________________________________________



Bomb for bomb



Israel has entered into open war with Iran with air strikes. What is

behind this?



By Pajam Masoumi



[This article posted on 6/17/2025 is translated from the German on the

Internet, https://www.akweb.de/politik/bombe-fuer-bombe-israel-iran-angriff-atomprogramm/.]





No military target: on Sunday, the Israeli army bombed oil refineries.

Photo: picture alliance / ASSOCIATED PRESS | Vahid Salemi



Israel attacked Iran on Friday, June 13, with a multi-pronged

strategy. With nearly 200 fighter jets, drones, and targeted attacks,

including car bombs, the Israeli army and the Mossad foreign

intelligence service succeeded in dealing a severe blow to the

military leadership of the Islamic Republic. At the same time, at

least nine scientists and professors believed to have been involved in

Iran's nuclear program were killed. Iran responded with a wave of 100

drones, which were easily intercepted. Since then, both countries have

been firing missiles at each other, and Israel has been bombing

targets throughout Iran.



According to Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu, the Islamic

Republic could have been in a position to build up to 15 nuclear bombs

in the coming months. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN,

and the US do not have this information, and the Israeli government

has not yet presented any evidence. Many of the attacks targeted

facilities involved in the nuclear program, such as the Natanz uranium

enrichment plant. Unlike many other countries, Iran's program is not

concentrated in one facility but spread across the country. Since

Sunday, however, Israeli communications have also focused on regime

change in Iran.



The Islamic Republic viewed the attacks as a declaration of war and

sabotage of the ongoing nuclear negotiations with the US. This cannot

be dismissed out of hand – despite stalled talks, further negotiations

were scheduled for Saturday, which have now been canceled following

the attacks. In addition, Ali Shamkhani, Khamenei's confidant and

Iran's negotiator in the nuclear talks, was killed in the Israeli

attack on June 14.



Hundreds dead, thousands fleeing



Israel's attacks (like Iran's retaliatory measures) are not covered by

international law, even if they focused on nuclear facilities and

military targets. Israel is also deliberately destroying Iran's air

defenses and declared on Saturday, June 14, that it had air

superiority over the entire country. This also demonstrates the

military weakness of the regime in Tehran, which was already unable to

defend itself against Israeli missile attacks last year. The targeted

elimination of military defense systems points to a prolonged war. And

this time, Iran has not only responded with drones, but is also

deliberately targeting Israeli infrastructure, such as the port of

Haifa.



The Israeli attacks are hitting the Iranian regime at a historic

moment of weakness.



Although most of the Israeli attacks began on nuclear facilities and

military targets, civilian infrastructure is increasingly coming under

fire. On Monday, June 16, a truck garage in the province of Kermanshah

was targeted by Israeli attacks, destroying a hospital located

directly next to the garage. In the afternoon of the same day, the

Israeli army ordered the evacuation of the entire District 3 of

Tehran, an area with over 300,000 inhabitants. Finally, on Monday

evening, the IDF bombed Iranian state television during a live

broadcast. Over the weekend, two airports, energy infrastructure, and

oil refineries had already been hit by missiles and severely damaged

in some cases. The death toll in Iran has also skyrocketed since the

attacks began on June 13: While around 70 deaths were reported on

Friday after the attacks, by Sunday the number had risen to more than

400, including many civilians. Videos of destroyed high-rise buildings

and residential complexes are circulating not only from Tehran.

Thousands are now fleeing the capital toward the Caspian Sea, but

Israeli shelling also reached that area over the weekend.



In Israel, too, Iran's retaliatory measures have led to 24 deaths by

Monday afternoon, despite the Iron Dome missile defense system and

support from European countries in missile defense. Since the Israeli

attacks, the Israeli population has been urged to seek safety and stay

near air raid shelters.



The US responded to the attacks with ambiguous statements: Secretary

of State Marco Rubio denied any involvement in the airstrikes. Trump,

however, praised the attacks on his Truth Social platform and said

that the US had of course given the green light. The attacks came at

the end of a 60-day ultimatum that Trump claims to have given Tehran

to agree to a new nuclear deal.



Even before the Israeli attack, the US evacuated embassy staff from

the region. Trump warned the Islamic Republic that the US would

intervene if Iranian proxies, for example from Iraq, or even Iranian

forces attacked US facilities. Netanyahu said the attacks had been

planned for more than a year and that Mossad had even set up a drone

base in Iran.



According to the Israeli plan, the attacks were also intended to kill

the Iranian leadership, including Khamenei. However, according to

consistent reports by Reuters and AFP, Trump rejected this; the

killing of the Iranian leadership would only be discussed if Americans

were killed in Iranian attacks.



For Netanyahu, the attack on the Islamic Republic has already paid

off: governments that began to criticize the Israeli government and

its warfare after the blockade of aid deliveries to Gaza are now

firmly back on its side, emphasizing that Israel is merely defending

its legitimate security interests.



Despite the ongoing brutalization of the Gaza war, it now seems to be

receding into the background in light of a potential war with Iran.

This is probably also due to the fact that the internet in Gaza has

been down since June 10, when the last functioning data cable was

damaged during Israeli bombings. Parallel to the attacks in Iran,

Israel launched a blockade of the West Bank, reinforcing all

checkpoints towards Israel and closing them to Palestinian traffic.

This led to massive attacks by right-wing extremist settlers on

Palestinian villages and their inhabitants.



Beginning or end?



The Israeli attacks hit the Iranian regime at a historic moment of

weakness. The question is therefore whether the current events herald

the end of the “shadow war” that has been smoldering between Iran and

Israel for years, rather than unleashing a new war in the Middle East.



Ever since Khamenei assumed his role as spiritual leader of the

republic in 1989, Iran has pursued a strategy of repeatedly bringing

its rivals to the brink of war. This is usually done through attacks

by its proxies in Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq, while attempting to avoid

direct confrontation. This strategy has now failed: Hezbollah in

Lebanon is weaker than ever due to the war with Israel. Immediately

after the Israeli bombings began on June 13, the organization

announced that it would not participate in Iranian retaliatory

strikes. Even Syria, once an important location for the so-called Axis

of Resistance, is unlikely to provide much help to the regime. Even

before Assad's fall, Israel had been bombing targets in Syria for

several months, mainly Iranian proxies, airports, and missile launch

systems. Since the fall of the Assad regime, Israel has been expanding

its occupation of Syrian territory.



Hamas in Gaza has also suffered heavy losses since its attack on

Israel on October 7, 2023, and will hardly be able to come to the aid

of the regime in Tehran. And even if it could, the rockets used by

Hamas have so far caused little damage in Israel. Moreover, unlike

Hezbollah, for example, Hamas has no interest in defending the Shiite

sect that predominates in Iran. And the Houthis in Yemen have neither

sufficient military nor human resources to withstand an open war

against Israel.



The regime in Tehran itself currently has other concerns: just

recently, the so-called headscarf law, which forces women in Iran to

wear the hijab in public, was suspended under pressure from the

population. Added to this are the largest strike in the transport

sector ever seen in Iran, as well as recently imposed US sanctions

that make it more difficult for China to circumvent the sanctions

already imposed on the Iranian oil sector. The regime will also be

unable to rely on Russia for much support: although the Kremlin

condemned the attacks, it is also benefiting from rising oil prices as

a result of the Israeli bombardment. And militarily, Russia is

embroiled in its own war of aggression in Ukraine. Iranian drone

production has become irrelevant for this purpose, as Russia has long

since built its own factories.



Hope for freedom



In Iran, but also in the Iranian diaspora, there is now growing

concern that the country could become even more authoritarian in the

wake of the war with Israel. In the first Gulf War (the Iran-Iraq War

from 1980 to 1988), for example, the Iranian regime persecuted and

murdered between 5,000 and 8,000 opposition members and imprisoned

countless others. The regime has also not forgotten the movement that

arose after the murder of Jîna Mahsa Amini in 2022: almost every day,

prisoners are sentenced to death and murdered, including a

particularly high number of people belonging to minorities such as

Kurds and Baluchis. Since the Israeli attacks on Friday, the Iranian

leadership has been moving military equipment into Kurdish areas for

reasons that are currently unclear. What is certain is that these

areas were particularly hard hit by the repression of street protests

in the context of the Jin-Jiyan-Azadî movement.



The regime in Tehran has not forgotten the movement that arose after

the murder of Jina Mahsa Amini in 2022: prisoners are sentenced to

death and murdered on an almost daily basis.



If the Iranian regime is currently so weak, the Iranian population is

suffering under repressive rule and Israeli bombs, and the military is

busy defending the state against an “external enemy,” could the

Iranian population not also turn openly against its “own” government?



This will probably remain nothing more than a hope. Although the

Jin-Jiyan-Azadî movement has been successful in abolishing the

compulsory wearing of headscarves, it has not been able to bring about

long-term change in Iran's theocratic system. Instead, the movement

currently appears to be stagnating. There are many reasons for this:

during and after the protests, many people were imprisoned or

executed, and young men are currently being forcibly recruited into

military service. Furthermore, the movement did not pursue a common

goal, but was composed of different groups with different political

ideas. Joint organization is difficult to achieve under massive

repression and competition between population groups fueled by the

state; moreover, the protests have not produced any prominent figures,

let alone political leadership. The bombings of Israel are also

unlikely to increase widespread anger toward the regime—after all,

this time it is not the clerical leadership that is responsible for

the deaths of countless people, but the very state whose destruction

Iranian state propaganda has been hammering into the population for

some 40 years. The air war waged by a state that is currently

conducting a genocidal war in Gaza and destroying its own home is

unlikely to help overcome nationalism in Iran and generate sympathy

among the masses.



However, some are already positioning themselves: Reza Pahlavi, the

son of the Shah who was overthrown in 1979 and dubbed “Crown Prince”

by his supporters, has called on the Iranian people to revolt and is

already eyeing power himself. His father, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was

considered an ally by the US and Israel in their fight against the

Arab states. Although this friendship seems hardly possible today, it

is still visible to this day: the Mossad helped build the prison

system of the Shah's former secret service. Today, the ruling Islamic

regime imprisons its opponents there, including opposition members

accused of collaborating with Israel on Sunday.



Iranian monarchists have a relatively small power base in Iran, but

are all the more dominant in the diaspora, threatening political

opponents and spreading the racist narrative of a Persian nation.

Ironically, this “crown prince” is now being presented by Western

media, such as the Tagesschau, as a possible transitional president,

since he presents himself as a friend of the West. But the idea that

the Iranian people will find the freedom they so desperately desire

with the help of Israeli missiles and the son of a dictator who has

already been overthrown is, above all, a Western projection.



Pajam Masoumi is part of the online editorial team at ak.