[Salon] Discussion of the 'Israeli-US bloodbath' in Iran's Press TV yesterday

https://gilbertdoctorow.substack.com/p/discussion-of-the-israeli-us-bloodbath

Discussion of the ‘Israeli-US bloodbath’ on Iran’s Press TV yesterday

Until about four months ago, I was a frequent guest on Iran’s global English-language news service, Press TV, mostly for analysis of Russia-related issues. Then there was a long pause during which my most frequent host has been the Indian television network WION. Yesterday, Teheran kindly invited me back to join Professor Anthony Hall of Lethbridge University in Alberta, Canada in a 24-minute long discussion of latest developments in the Israel-Gaza war.

http://www.urmedium.net/c/presstv/127826

My fellow panelist is quite passionate and no doubt many viewers will approve of his engagement. I fully agree with him that the scale of atrocities being perpetrated by Israel against the Palestinians does not allow any of us to avoid taking sides in a very public manner.

The Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping was mentioned in passing on the show, as was the visit of US Defense Secretary Austin to Israel, though the two events were not linked in our discussion. Let me do that now, when the efforts during this visit by Austin to build a coalition of the willing to provide security to ships passing through the Red Sea were announced this morning.

I spoke yesterday about the caution that all state and non-state actors in the Middle East have been demonstrating since the early days of October to avoid escalation of the conflict to a regional or global level. This also applies to what has been said about Austin’s coalition for securing shipping in the Red Sea. Apparently the emphasis is on putting in place convoys to accompany the commercial vessels and so protect them against boarding parties, and also putting in place military vessels with capabilities to shoot down attacking missiles and drones. Note that there is not a word about directly attacking Yemen. And the reason should be clear: a U.S.-led attack on the Yemeni Houthis would be tantamount to a declaration of war against their backers, Iran. It would instantly escalate the conflict to a regional war that would swiftly escalate further to a global war in which the key protagonists would be the United States and…Russia, who are the allies in all but name of the Iranians.

As I said yesterday on these pages yesterday, everything is interconnected, as even the densest among us like Austin and his colleagues in the Biden administration understand.