Iran Is Playing Chess, Israel Is Playing Checkers and America Owns the Board
Israel left the game up to the Americans, who have their own agenda
In 1956, Israel formed a three-way coalition with two waning powers, Britain and France, against Egypt, which had nationalized the Suez Canal – the Strait of Hormuz of that era. This proved to be a fatal mistake. The moment the two powers concluded that the war wasn't achieving the hoped-for result, they turned their backs on it, leaving with a stain that remains on their brows to this day.
As a result, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, who was a step away from establishing the "third Israeli kingdom," did an about-face. The kingdom disintegrated, remaining but a historical absurdity. It turns out you don't play around with great powers – not even if you're Ben-Gurion and not even if you're Benjamin Netanyahu.
Seventy years later, Israel repeated that mistake by playing second fiddle in the attack on Iran. Following is a list of that attack's side effects:
1. Israel left the leadership of the operation to the Americans and America, with all its affection for Israel, has its own agenda, including targets other than Iran. Yesterday it was Venezuela, tomorrow it will be Cuba, then Greenland and perhaps others as well. It can't afford to get bogged down in Iran for a long time – that is, until Netanyahu finishes his work in the Middle East, which will never end.
2. When America launched the attack, it abandoned its allies in the Gulf, with their precious oil. After all, from Iran's standpoint, the Gulf states are American military bases in every respect and therefore, legitimate targets for attack. And indeed, it attacked them with great enthusiasm, even more than it attacked American and Israeli targets.
3. The war against Iran became one whose consequences spanned the globe. The entire world wants to end it, primarily to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, whose closure has disrupted the lives of hundreds of millions of people worldwide.
One could also mention many more consequences of the joint attack with America that Netanyahu worked with all his might to secure, but I'll focus on one essential issue. Today, Israel is merely watching what is happening between Israel and Iran – the ongoing negotiations, the Iranian "chutzpah" in saying no to America – while Israel, which prepared, urged and did fantastic public relations in favor of the attack, has been left off the court.
In the meantime, it's playing with Lebanon, a country of six million people – and not even all of Lebanon, just a part of it. Doesn't this feel depressing?
Thus the result so far is that Israel has returned to its natural dimensions – a country with 10 million people, compared to one with 300 million and another with 100 million. This sight provokes great disappointment. Jews, stop your self-indulgence; have more children! And where has former Prime Minister Ehud Barak disappeared? Why isn't he bringing a few million more blondes here?
Journalist and intellectual Mohammed Hussein Heikel, who was an adviser to former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, once said that Egypt was playing backgammon, while Israel was playing chess. For the benefit of anyone who runs across that remark today, it's worth explaining that he was describing the situation back then, not today.
I looked into the matter and it turns out chess originated in India. But the Iranians were the ones who developed it to its current level of sophistication. I also discovered that backgammon is an Iranian invention. But Netanyahu and his water carrier, Defense Minister Israel Katz, aren't playing chess, or even backgammon. Instead, they are playing bulldozers.
Now, the bulldozer is stalled. A stalled bulldozer first and foremost embitters the lives of its operators. And when things get difficult, a bulldozer destroys indiscriminately. Sometimes, it's aimed against Israel's Arab citizens, sometimes against the Supreme Court president, sometimes against university faculty and students, sometimes against journalists.
That's how the world works. When the gates to the outside close, bulldozers turn inward – because a bulldozer needs to earn a living and where doesn't matter. Israelis, prepare yourselves. The bulldozer is hungry and you are its targets.