Can anyone in Israel face down the hawks and stop a disaster?

WITH Iran’s massive but largely unsuccessful retaliation over Israel’s successful attack on the Iranian embassy in Damascus, it has claimed that, if Israel strikes again against Iranian territory, the next onslaught will take place.

That threat now hangs in the air. It is a threat designed to mollify its own people and to test the mettle and mindset of the Israeli government.

All that that weekend strike succeeded in doing was to deplete the weaponry of Israel’s Iron Dome defensive technology and to inflict limited damage upon the airbase from which Israel launched its attack on the embassy in Damascus. It is how the Israeli war cabinet decides to respond to the threat explicit in Iran’s statement which will determine the direction of travel in this conflict. If the war cabinet sees that threat as a provocative challenge to the iron will of its military, it will be time to batten down the hatches and to prepare for all-out war between Iran and Israel, which has never been known to shirk a fight for its survival. The consequences of such a decision would be far-reaching for all of us.

If the Israeli government harkens to the more cautious counsels of its allies, it will ignore Iran’s threat in the belief that the threat is there for home consumption by the Iranians only. However, Iran’s strike against the Israeli state directly instead of it coming from its glove puppets has escalated the tension and the expectation of more direct action in the minds of the Israeli hawks.

This must make us all wonder whether Israel now believes that the time for shadow boxing is over, sweeping aside the proxy combatants it faces in Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. Perhaps it will come to the conclusion that the final line must now be drawn in the sand, direct confrontation with its sworn enemy faced, with the gloves now coming off for the inevitable bareknuckle fight to which it now sees no alternative.

Such a mindset will result in a grim, ghastly and gory outcome on a much broader front.

Who is there in the Israeli war cabinet with the stature to stand up against the determination to fight the war of all wars and to quell that rising rage for the ultimate solution?

Denis Bruce, Bishopbriggs. from the influence of Tehran. Following the huge barrage of missiles aimed at Israel everyone seems to want Israel to call a halt to the escalation but Iran is still threatening counter-measures should its will be challenged.

This is an impossible situation not only for Israel but the wider world. Iran, under its current government, is the core problem. This issue needs to be solved not only for the world but for the vast majority of Iranians themselves who want a more tolerant administration. Blaming Israel for all the problems is disingenuous.