I don’t normally send breaking news as a post by email but this does seem to be significant and despite (or maybe because?) both sides are controlled by the same people, it appears their controllers have decided they are interested in a major escalation at this time.
A recap of the main events so far
This is a very rapidly developing situation as you can imagine and at these early stages, the fog of war is especially thick but here are the main things that have happened so far.
Events in Israel
Today (June 13), at 4am local time (GMT/UTC+2), the Israel Defence Force (IDF) spokesperson issued a statement saying it had struck "dozens of military targets" related to Iran's nuclear program and the start of Operation “Rising Lion”.
Around the same time, Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the nation in one of the most fiery addresses I have heard from him in recent years which included plenty of biblical references as well as referencing the Holocaust.
If you listen carefully (if you understand Hebrew) or read the subtitles I provided, it should be fairly clear to you that Netanyahu’s address to the Israeli people is clearly designed to evoke strong emotions and turn off critical thinking, while also making them extremely compliant with whatever directives and other measures his government will initiate next.
It is worth mentioning that the Knesset (Israel’s Parliament) narrowly defeated a motion only yesterday to dissolve Parliament and call for new general elections following a major disagreement in Netanyahu’s coalition over whether Ultra Orthdox Jews should be forced to do mandatory military service in the IDF like all other Israeli Jews.
However, I’m ‘sure’ the timing of the attack in Iran has nothing to do with that…of course not. 🙄
His statement in English (which is obviously aimed at the International community rather than his own people), was almost as fiery but included less Holocaust references:
The recently appointed new Commander of the IDF General Staff (which is the highest ranking officer of the IDF), has also addressed the people of Israel and in what is quite unusual for what is effectively the ‘supreme commander’ of the IDF, also used biblical references and also referenced the Holocaust while announcing a massive mobilisation of reservists:
Shortly thereafter, the official account of the IDF on Twitter posted this clip:
If this “you are either with us or you are with the evil doers/terrorists” rhetoric sounds like something you may have heard before, you are not wrong:
This is also pretty standard 'modus operandi’ for the IDF. Here is what they posted five days after the October 7 attacks:
Events in Iran
Around the same time of the IDF Spokesperson statement, videos started emerging from Iran showing what appears like high rise residential buildings in the capital Tehran engulfed in flames:
This footage was also posted by Iran’s State TV in English:
Israel’s public broadcaster reported that the personal residences of senior officials in Iran’s political and military establishments were amongst the targets attacked by the IDF and also that IDF sources confirmed that there is an increasing likelihood that senior members of Iran’s military high command, as well as several senior nuclear scientists, have been killed in the first wave of the attacks.
Shortly thereafter, the same Iranian State TV confirmed that the Commander of the IRGC (The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, also known as the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, is a multi-service primary branch of the Iranian Armed Forces) has been “martyred” in the Israeli attack.
Major General Gholam Ali Rashid, the commander of the central headquarters of the Iranian Armed Forces, has also been “martyred”.
Veteran nuclear scientists Mohammad-Mehdi Tehranchi and Fereydoon Abbasi have also also been “martyred” in separate attacks.
Iranian state TV also stated that the news agency IRNA reported that:
The Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Major General Bagheri, is currently in the war room and, contrary to rumors, was not harmed in the Israeli attacks.
This is in contradiction to various reports (including in Israeli Media) which stated that the highest ranking officer in the entire Iranian Armed Forces has been “eliminated” in the Israeli attack.
Meanwhile, footage started emerging of at least parts of the nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz (which was also targeted back in 2010 by Stuxnet, dubbed the “first known cyberweapon”) in flames although it is unclear at this stage what is the extent of the damage.
The official response from Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei, as per his official website, was pretty clear and just what you’d expect:
His official Twitter account in English expressed the same ‘sentiment’:
The Spokesperson of the Iranian military expressed the same sentiment as the supreme leader, as you’d obviously expect:
As I am about to hit publish, the IDF spokesperson issued a statement indicating that:
“Iran has launched over 100 UAVs from its territory towards Israel and we are currently intercepting these”
Israel’s public broadcaster Kan (“here” in Hebrew) posted a clip on their YT channel which allegedly shows Iranian UAVs over Iraq en-route to Israel:
The response from the US
Trump initially tried to take a conciliatory tone posting the following on his Truth Social account less than 24 hours before the Israeli attack:
He also warned that very same day that there is “chance of massive conflict” in the Middle East and that an Israeli attack on Iran is “possible”.
Well, he obviously was pretty on the money there and I also think it’s extremely likely Israel probably gave the Americans a head-up shortly before going in.
Shortly after the Israeli air strikes in Iran, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued the following statement which was also reposted on the official social accounts of the White House:
This statement is interesting given Trump has made it clear shortly thereafter that the US will defend Israel if Iran retaliates.
What happens next?
This is the Middle East so only god knows!
Saying that, I will do my best to stay on top of events as they unfold and will be posting updates in this chat thread.
The chat room is only open to subscribers (free or paid) as I am trying my best to keep it a troll-free zone (with pretty good success so far I must say).
If you are not a subscriber, this can be fixed easily below (and it is free!):
The Bigger Picture
To start with, I highly recommend you watch this excellent (as usual) video by William Spaniel, who has one of the best Geopolitics channels on YouTube in my humble opinion!
If you want to actually understand world events, this is the channel for you. However, if you are still at the stage where you try to figure out who are the “baddies” and who are the “goodies” so that you can “stand with” your chosen ‘good guys’ then please do NOT watch the video below and instead maybe watch a movie of your favourite ‘super hero’/ ‘action hero’ franchise…
Still here? Rightio:
One aspect though which Prof. Spaniel fails to mention enough in his videos (in my opinion at least) is the fact that very often (if not always), BOTH sides in a conflict are ultimately under the control of the same forces/people.
This could be a massive post in itself but let’s start with this:
And continue to this:
One more:
And there is also the new (and current) Parliament Building of the Islamic Republic of Iran (a.k.a. Baharestan) which was opened in 2004 and looks like this:
If you find that ‘interesting’, take a look at the current building of the Supreme Court of the state of Israel which was opened in 1992:
Probably nothing….
It’s also worth keeping in mind that Iran may have handed over Hizbullah leader Nasrallah to Israel on a silver platter last year as part of a bigger play:
As I said in the subheading of this piece, it is fairly safe to assume that Iran and Israel are ultimately BOTH controlled by the same masters and as long as everyone keeps that in mind…and those masters haven’t become suicidal all of a sudden, the “dire warning” discussed in the post below will remain just that.
Here’s to hoping…
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