Iran’s Revolutionary Guards vowed on Sunday to target ‘Israeli’ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the war with ‘Israel’ and the United States continues.
“If this child-killing criminal is alive, we will continue to pursue and kill him with full force,” said the Guards on their website Sepah News.
I didn’t say that, for one. For two, I have no idea what “Stephen Universe reasons” means.
In general, I don’t cheer for escalation in the Middle East. I think bombing Iran was bad. I think bombing Israel would also be bad. I can agree that Netanyahu is bad without championing for more bombs.
The ideal would be that he is removed from office and tried for war crimes. Not that we have a continuing and escalating war.
Why?
Bombings are always the result of failure. Violence is the final refuge of the incompetent. Sometimes necessary certainly, but never correct with appropriate foresight.
And revenge being the reason behind any action is foolish. It’s like making the focus of prison punishment instead of rehabilitation. When you drop bombs, it should be with particular policy goals in mind.
I also think that it would be preferable if things in the Middle East got calmer, not more escalated. If I had the choice between less violence there and more, I will certainly chose the less.
So, we then have to define what we mean by “bombing Israel.” Wanton bombing I can see no argument for that isn’t simply punitive, which is clearly bad under the aforementioned criteria.
There may be an argument for a targeted strike to just target Netanyahu. You have to ask yourself what the goals and effects of such a strike would be. I think it is unlikely to greatly change Israel’s posture. Netanyahu is unpopular domestically, as is this war, but the nation of Israel has a history of rallying around martyrs that would probably overwhelm any gains by having Netanyahu out of the picture. This would also likely lead towards an even greater retaliatory strike against Iran (which, again, would also be bad.)
So what’s the benefit of bombing Israel other than “it makes me feel good to hurt a bad guy”? Why is it actually good?
Some violence is self defense, like in this case. It may not be our favorite thing, but if you’re up against fascists in power the only thing that can stop them is violence. If you don’t, you’re just letting them genocide literally everyone they want, which isn’t just extremely cruel and abominable, but it’s also stupid, as the enemy of the state is a moving target and for every genocide they accomplish they move on to the next. It’s a matter of time until you or your loved ones are declared the enemy. What then? How can you resist genocidal violence if not with self-defense?
Killing Netanyahu wouldn’t be great self defense, on the contrary. What Iran and Iran-controlled factions are doing now is the better “self defense” violence: target assets that have a deep value for the US and their allies.