Introduction: A Strategic Crisis With Global Consequences
On June 12, 2025, Israel launched a pre-emptive attack on Iranian infrastructure—an action that has dramatically escalated tensions across the Middle East. In a context already plagued by conflict and mistrust, this act threatens to unleash a broader regional war. With the United States and European allies backing Israel, and Russia and potentially Pakistan aligning with Iran, the world faces its most serious nuclear standoff in decades.
This article critically examines the origins of this conflict, the ideological underpinnings driving Israel's leadership, particularly Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the systemic failures of diplomacy that have brought us to the edge of catastrophe.
Netanyahu’s Strategic Doctrine: From "Clean Break" to Regional Hegemony
The intellectual foundation for Israel's present war can be traced to the 1996 "Clean Break" policy paper drafted for Netanyahu’s first government. The paper, produced by American neoconservatives, advocated for abandoning land-for-peace frameworks in favour of regional transformation through force and U.S.-backed regime change across the Middle East.[1]
The blueprint envisioned a pro-Israel regional order, achieved by destabilizing or toppling governments in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, and ultimately Iran. As General Wesley Clark famously recounted, the U.S. post-9/11 military strategy mirrored this vision, aiming to target seven countries in five years.[2]
Netanyahu’s alignment with key U.S. hawks—including Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, and Elliott Abrams—cemented an enduring alliance between Likud’s expansionist aims and America’s interventionist impulses.
Ideological Roots: The Likud Party and Maximalist Zionism
Netanyahu's worldview draws from the Revisionist Zionism of Ze’ev Jabotinsky and his successors Yitzhak Shamir and Menachem Begin. Likud’s founding platform calls for exclusive Israeli sovereignty over all territory from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River—an explicit rejection of Palestinian statehood. The often-maligned chant, "From the river to the sea," gains new significance when seen as Likud's territorial claim, not merely a fringe slogan.[3]
In 2023 and 2024, Netanyahu displayed maps at the UN General Assembly presenting a "New Middle East" that erased Palestinian statehood altogether. He described countries such as Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq as a "curse," explicitly linking their regimes to a threat that must be removed.[4]
A Manufactured Nuclear Crisis
Israel’s justification for attacking Iran rests on long-standing claims that Iran is on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. Yet these claims have consistently failed to materialize. Since 1992, Netanyahu has made repeated predictions that Iran was only "a few years away" from acquiring a bomb. In 2012, he told the UN that Iran was mere weeks from obtaining weapons-grade uranium. [5]
However, Iran has repeatedly denied seeking nuclear weapons and has issued binding religious edicts (fatwas) against their development. In 2005, Iran formally cited this fatwa at an IAEA conference. [6] The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), agreed by the P5+1 and Iran, imposed strict limitations and inspections. It was working—until the Trump administration, under pressure from Netanyahu, withdrew from the deal in 2018.[7]
Following the withdrawal, Iran resumed enrichment. Nonetheless, Iran repeatedly offered to return to compliance in exchange for lifting sanctions. Five rounds of negotiations showed steady progress, with a sixth round scheduled for June 15, 2025. Instead, Israel launched its strike three days earlier—derailing both diplomacy and a forthcoming UN peace conference on Palestine.[8]
The Role of the United States and the Collapse of Diplomacy
The U.S. has long abetted Israel’s regional ambitions, frequently subordinating multilateral diplomacy to bilateral loyalty. Despite Iran’s offers of inspections and uranium limitations, both the Trump and Biden administrations oscillated between rhetorical support for diplomacy and tacit support for Israeli militarism. In a particularly stark episode, President Trump acknowledged after the June 12 strike that the U.S. had prior knowledge—despite simultaneously encouraging renewed negotiations.[9]
This duplicity has weakened global trust in the U.S. as an honest broker and emboldened hardliners on all sides.
Escalation Risks: Toward Nuclear Brinkmanship
The consequences of this war could extend far beyond the Middle East. Russia, already aligned with Iran in Syria, has condemned the Israeli strike and hinted at "regional realignments." Pakistan—under intense domestic pressure over U.S. support for Israeli aggression—may offer rhetorical or even military support to Iran.
A multi-nuclear standoff is no longer unthinkable. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' Doomsday Clock remains at 89 seconds to midnight, and current developments may move it closer still.[10]
Geopolitical Fallout and the Two-State Solution
Over the past 30 years, U.S.-Israeli interventions have destabilized a 4,000-kilometer swath across the region—from North Africa to the Persian Gulf. These wars have derailed legitimate paths to peace, including the two-state solution endorsed by over 170 countries in the United Nations.
Israel’s military campaign against Iran should be seen for what it is: the final act in a decades-long strategy to eliminate political and diplomatic avenues for Palestinian sovereignty by toppling regimes sympathetic to their cause. [11]
Conclusion: A Call for Restraint, Diplomacy, and Accountability
The international community must act urgently to de-escalate this crisis. Israel's June 12 strike on Iran—launched amid viable negotiations and ahead of a critical UN conference—was not an act of self-defence. It was a calculated political manoeuvre by a prime minister facing corruption charges and declining domestic support.
The world must demand:
An immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of Israeli forces
A return to IAEA-supervised negotiations with Iran
International enforcement of UN Security Council resolutions on Palestinian statehood
Above all, we must resist being dragged into yet another war based on manipulated intelligence, ideological extremism, and geopolitical adventurism. The world deserves a diplomatic future—not a nuclear reckoning.
References
Wurmser, D. (1996). A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm. Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Clean_Break:_A_New_Strategy_for_Securing_the_Realm
Clark, W. (2007). Interview with Democracy Now!, March 2, 2007. https://youtu.be/bSL3JqorkdU?feature=shared
Karsh, E. (2001). [Review of The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World, by A. Shlaim]. Shofar, 19(4), 132–134 https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/40847
United Nations General Assembly Address, Benjamin Netanyahu, September 2023 & 2024. https://gadebate.un.org/sites/default/files/gastatements/79/il_fl.pdf
Bergman, R. (2018). Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations. Random House. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rise_and_Kill_First
IAEA Records, Vienna Conference, August 2005.
Katzman, K. (2020). Iran Sanctions. Congressional Research Service. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/27084-document-230-congressional-research-service-kenneth-katzman-iran-sanctions-november
Euro News (2025). "UN conference on Palestinian statehood postponed following Israeli strikes on Iran." https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/06/14/un-conference-on-palestinian-statehood-postponed-following-israeli-strikes-on-iran
WSJ. (2025). "US was aware of Israel’s plans to attack Iran, Trump tells Wall Street Journal" https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/us-was-aware-of-israel-s-plans-to-attack-iran-trump-tells-wall-street-journal/3597163
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. (2025). Doomsday Clock Report. https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/
Pappe, I. (2017). Ten Myths About Israel. Verso Books. https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/370-ten-myths-about-israel?srsltid=AfmBOoqIlnMdkBHfGsrxkzn_TUEa_Cua_be1CKWuQv-i0H6JWIkhqp8Z
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