Iran and Israel Already in Proxy War

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright February 13, 2012
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           Proving that turnabout is fair play, Iran reversed roles with Israel, sending its agents and proxies to retaliate against alleged attacks by the Mossad on Iran’s nuclear scientists.  Israel accused Iran and its Lebanese client group Hezbollah of attacking Israeli embassy personnel in New Delhi, India and Tblisi, Georgia.  Hit with shrapnel from a bomb blast to her car in New Delhi, a wife of an Israeli diplomat, her drivers and two passer-bys were injured in the blast demolishing her car.  Israeli officials put all embassies and missions on high alert for the four-year anniversary of Hezbollah’s Imad, Moughniyeh’s assassination.  While there’s been numerous Hamas and Hezbollah officials targeted by Israel, Iran lashed out because of the more recent murder of Iranian nuclear scientist 43-year-old Mostafa Reza Roshan working at Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment facility.

            Iran’s recent attack was believed as revenge for Israel’s ongoingcampaign against Iran’s nuclear scientists.  Going after Israeli diplomatic personnel ups the ante, provoking possible military strike.  With Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmandinejad refusing to give up Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, the U.S. and Israel are running out of options to stop Iran from building its first A-bomb.  Israeli officials can’t have it both ways:  Pretending the Mossad has nothing to do with killing Iran’s nuclear scientists and, at the same time, accusing Iran of retaliatory aggression.  “Iran and its proxy Hezbollah are behind each of these attacks,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing Iran of international terrorism.  Israel has a real problem soliciting sympathy, when much of the world believes they’ve been actively engaged in a covert war against Iran’s nuclear enrichment program.

            Targeting well-educated and trained scientists for assassination because their government, for whatever reason, asks them to work in controversial programs carries political risks.  “We will continue to take strong and systematic, yet patient action against the international terrorists that originates in Iran,” said Netanyahu, pointing finger at Iran’s current mullah-based regime.  Netanyahu knows that Iran is still home to thousands of Jews, who, for decades, found Iran more hospital than other Mideast countries.  Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran hasn’t been kind to any religions other than Shiite Islam.  Religious intolerance has been a real problem for Ahmadinejad’s regime, who sometimes threatens Israel or hosts Holocaust denial events.  Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Israel was the one carrying out psychological warfare against Iran.

            Iran’s denials of recent attacks against Israeli diplomats don’t wash with known fact by police in New Delhi and Tblisi.  “It seems that thesesuspicious incidents are designed by the Zionist regime and carried out with the aim of harming Iran’s reputation,” the official IRNA news agency quoted Mehmanparast.  Most foreign policy experts believe Tehran and Tel Aviv have been in a covert battle, picking off vulnerable targets at opportune times.  With all the tit-for-tat, there’s nothing unusual about both Israel and Iran going after each other.  Neither Israel nor Iran is concerned about each other’s reputations, only stopping what Israel views as an existential threat. Mehmanparast makes no sense that Israel would attack its own diplomatic personnel   New Delhi police believe that there were Iranian fingerprints all over the bomb blast the destroyed the Israeli diplomat’s car.

            U.S. officials want to blame Iran for targeting Israelis in variouslocations. “These incidents underscore our ongoing concerns of the targeting of Israeli interests overseas,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney, telling reporters that the U.S. had no confirmation about the New Delhi blast.  New Delhi police commissioner B.K Gupta said eyewitnesses observed a bicyclist slapping a magnetic bomb on the rear of the Israeli diplomat’s care.  That’s the precise M.O. of what happened Jan. 11, 2011, when Natanz uranium enrichment scientist Roshan was killed.  Dragging herself from the wrecked car Feb. 12, the wife of Israeli defense attaché Talya Yehoshua Koren was take to an American hospital for shrapnel removal.  “She was able to drag herself from the car and is now in the American hospital, where tow Israeli doctors are treating her,” said an Israeli Defense Minister spokesman.

            Israel and Iran have escalated their tit-for-tat covert battle that now seems less and less covert.  Neither Israel nor Iran is innocent in plotting attacks on each other.  Targeting Iran’s nuclear scientists is a controversial policy designed to halt Iran’s feverish pursuit of nuclear weapons.  Obama made clear in his Jan. 24 State of the Union speech he won’t tolerate Iran developing or getting an atomic weapon.  “During this period of time, when our enemies in the north avoid carrying out attack fearing a harsh response, we are witnesses to the ongoing attempts by Hezbollah and other hostile entities to execute vicious terror attacks at locations far away from the state of Israel,” said Israel’s Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Benny Gantz.  Before both sides fall into the abyss of war, they need to dial back the hostile rhetoric and reconsider a policy of targeting scientists and career diplomats.

  John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.       

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