BANGING THE DRUMS OF WAR: What is the best way to escape justice, start a war? If that doesn’t work, start a bigger war. Every time you are cornered, escalate, and then escalate some more. Benjamin Netanyahu is running out of women and children to kill in Gaza. He has attacked Lebanon, Yemen and Syria, so why not just go all out and start a war with Iran?
He has been banging the drums of war for years and years now. With Trump in power and the Evangelicals all aboard, this could be his one and only chance to attack Iran. Israel can’t win without America, that’s a fact. Oh and I almost forgot the tiny detail of multiple corruption cases that would be magically brushed aside if Israel goes to war.
Netanyahu would risk Israel’s survival to save his own skin, sound familiar? Two peas in a pod of malice. Israel is also using the war as pretext to annex large swathes of land in Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank.
QATAR-GATE: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denounced an investigation into possible links between his aides and Qatar as a “witch hunt”, after he gave testimony to police.
An adviser and a former spokesman were arrested on Monday over alleged payments from the Gulf Arab state as part of the probe, which has been dubbed “Qatar-gate”. They have denied any wrongdoing.
Netanyahu, who has not been named as a suspect, accused the police of holding the two men as “hostages”, adding: “There is no case.”
It comes as Netanyahu faces escalating protests in Israel over his policies, including the resumption of Israel’s offensive against Hamas before securing the release of all the remaining hostages, the dismissal of the director of the Shin Bet internal security agency, and the advancement of a controversial plan to overhaul the judiciary.
Between 2018 and the start of the current war, which was triggered by Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, the Gulf state provided hundreds of millions of dollars of aid for Gaza.
Israeli governments allowed the money to be transferred to pay the wages of civil servants in Gaza’s Hamas-run government, support the poorest families, and fund fuel deliveries for the territory’s sole power plant. However, critics asserted that it was helping Hamas to stay in power and fund its military activities. – David Gritten – BBC News
MESSAGE IN A BOMBER: – The Pentagon has sent at least six B-2 bombers – 30% of the US Air Force’s stealth bomber fleet – to the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, in what analysts have called a message to Iran as tensions once again flare in the Middle East.
The deployment comes as US President Donald Trump and his defense chief Pete Hegseth warn of further action against Iran and its proxies, while US jets continue to attack the Tehran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton said the placement of the highly sophisticated, $2 billion warplanes was a signal to US adversaries.
“The deployment of these B-2s is clearly designed to send a message – perhaps several messages – to Iran,” said the former US Air Force colonel.
“One of them could be a warning to cease supporting the Houthis in Yemen. Another message the Trump administration might be sending to Iran is that it wants a new nuclear deal (to replace the ‘bad’ deal Trump withdrew the US from in his first term) and if Iran doesn’t start to negotiate with the US the consequences could be the destruction of Iran’s nuclear weapons program,” Leighton said.
Trump began ramping up military action against the Houthis in mid-March, with airstrikes that killed at least 53 people and wounded almost 100 others in Yemen, according to the Houthi-run Health Ministry.
Strikes have continued since, as Houthis threaten US warships in the region, in attacks that the militants say are in solidarity with Gaza as it faces bombardment by Israel, a key US ally.
Trump, in a Tuesday post on his social media platform Truth Social, on Tuesday threatened more could be coming.
“Stop shooting at U.S. ships, and we will stop shooting at you. Otherwise, we have only just begun, and the real pain is yet to come, for both the Houthis and their sponsors in Iran,” Trump posted.
Trump has also been pushing Iran to make a deal over its nuclear capabilities, saying on March 19 that he would give Tehran two months to come to an agreement or face the consequences.
There “are two ways Iran can be handled: militarily, or you make a deal. I would prefer to make a deal, because I’m not looking to hurt Iran,” Trump told Fox News last month. But Iran this week rejected any direct negotiations.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “continues to make clear that, should Iran or its proxies threaten American personnel and interests in the region, the United States will take decisive action to defend our people,” Parnell said.
Military aviation analyst Peter Layton told CNN that the six-bomber deployment to Diego Garcia is likely focused beyond possible Houthi targets.
“Six is a serious number. For Houthi deeply buried targets, two or maybe three, but six B-2s is a major effort,” Layton said. – By Brad Lendon, Haley Britzky and Avery Schmitz, CNN – Wed April 2, 2025.
TRUMP GAZA: Deadly Israeli air strikes have been reported in Gaza, as Israel’s defence minister said its military would expand its offensive and seize large areas of the Palestinian territory – incorporating them into what he described as “security zones”.
Israel Katz said the expanded operation aimed to “destroy and clear the area of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure”, and would require a large-scale evacuation of Palestinians.
There were also reports of extensive Israeli air strikes and shelling along the Egypt border overnight and there is a growing sense that a new major Israeli ground offensive is looming in Gaza.
Israeli Army Radio said on Wednesday that Israeli tanks and ground forces had begun to advance into central and eastern parts of the southernmost city of Rafah.
This week, Israel’s military ordered an estimated 140,000 people in Rafah to leave their homes and issued new evacuation orders for parts of northern Gaza.
Israel launched its renewed Gaza offensive on 18 March, blaming Hamas for rejecting a new US proposal to extend the ceasefire and free the 59 hostages still held captive in Gaza.
Hamas, in turn, accused Israel of violating the original deal they had agreed to in January.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum in Israel, which represents many hostages’ relatives, said they were “horrified to wake up” to the news of the expanded military operation. – Rachel Hagan and Yolande Knell – Reporting for BBC News from Jerusalem.
HEAD OF THE SNAKE: This morning the world’s focus is on Donald Trump’s decision to launch a global trade war. But in a few weeks’ time, the man who last month pledged to deliver ‘peace through strength’ is planning to embark on a real war.
I’m currently in Tel Aviv, and according to several senior political, military and diplomatic sources, the United States and Israel are preparing to launch a strike on Iran that will finally eradicate the threat posed by the country’s nuclear weapons programme.
On Monday, Trump announced with typical grandiloquence: ‘If they [Iran] don’t make a deal, there will be bombing… it will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.’ Some observers believed this was just more hyperbolic rhetoric. But the Israeli source was clear. ‘It’s not just a crazy insistence. It’s extremely important for the stability of Israel and the world.’
Threats of military action against Iran’s nuclear weapons programme have been made before. But there’s now clear evidence that, this time, both the US and Israel intend to do more than just rattle their sabres.
According to a second senior diplomatic source: ‘From Israel’s perspective, with Trump in the White House, this represents the optimum moment to deal with Iran. There won’t be a better chance.’
But an equally significant factor is that Israel now regards Iran as the ultimate perpetrator of the October 7 attacks. ‘They are the head of the snake,’ one Israeli politician claimed.
Israel is a nation traumatised – some might say blinded – by grief and guilt and fear. It has not even begun to properly process the events of 18 months ago. Indeed, it may never adequately do so.
But there is one thing Israel is clear on. It wants a reckoning with its enemies. And in particular, it wants a reckoning with Iran.
Donald Trump’s trade war is a sideshow. A real war is coming.
By DAN HODGES FOR THE DAILY MAIL
PUBLISHED: 11:53 BST, 2 April 2025 |
UPDATE: UNJUSTIFIED ESCALATION: Syria has strongly condemned a fresh wave of Israeli strikes on airbases and other military sites overnight as an “unjustified escalation”.
The foreign ministry said the attacks almost destroyed Hama airbase and injured dozens of people. A monitoring group reported that four defence ministry personnel were killed.
Israel’s military said it hit “capabilities that remained” at the western Hama and central T4 airbases, along with military infrastructure in Damascus.
It came amid reports that Turkey was moving to station jets and air defences at Syrian airbases.
Israel’s defence minister warned Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Thursday that he would “pay a very heavy price” if he allowed “forces hostile to Israel” to enter the country.
The Israeli military has carried out hundreds of strikes across Syria to destroy military assets – including jets, tanks, missiles, air defence systems, weapons factories and research centres – since former president Bashar al-Assad’s regime was overthrown by rebel forces in December after 13 years of civil war.
Israel has also sent troops into the UN-monitored demilitarised buffer zone in the Golan Heights, as well as several adjoining areas and the summit of Mount Hermon.
And it has demanded the complete demilitarisation of the three neighbouring southern provinces of Deraa, Quneitra and Suweida, saying it would not accept the presence of the forces of Sharaa’s government there. – David Gritten BBC News
Lucy Williamson Middle East correspondent.
Apr 02, 2025 3:21:59 pm
