By Walt Zlotow
Steven Katz misunderstands the real existential fight occurring in Israel and its performance in its unprovoked attack on Iran.
In his Chicago Tribune op-ed, ‘Israel’s war against Iran is just’ Katz begins with; “Israel is waging an existential fight for its survival as a Jewish state. And it is winning and fighting well.”
While Israel is waging an existential fight for its survival as a Jewish state, it’s not from Iran. Iran never was, is not now and won’t in the future be an existential threat to Israel. It has neither the will nor the means to do that.
Israeli leadership under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his even more extreme cabinet are doing that quite well without any help from Iran or any of its other neighbors. Netanyahu’s genocidal campaign of ethnically cleansing all 2,300,000 Palestinians in Gaza has made Israel a pariah state being shunned by much of the world.
Tourism is down 90%, inflicting a $3.4 billion drop in tourist revenue. Almost 470,000 Israelis have emigrated since the genocide began October 8, 2023, a day after the Hamas attack. Israel’s economy has been battered. Bank of Israel estimates war costs since October, 2023 will amount to $55.6 billion costing Israel 10% of its economy. Israeli GDP dropped to 2% since the Gaza genocide from 6.5% before. Consumer spending declined 27%, imports dropped 42% and exports fell 18%.
Instead of ending the bleeding in Gaza and the Israeli economy, Netanyahu launched another murderous misadventure sure to make all these demographic and economic declines worse. The existential threat to Israel lies not in Tehran but in the Israeli Prime Minister’s office
Regarding Katz’s take on Israel’s war performance, it’s neither winning nor fighting well. Israel cannot destroy Iran’s nuclear capability by itself nor topple the Iranian regime. Only massive US military involvement can possibly do that and with no certainty of success.
Israel knows this which is why it has goaded the US to attack Iran for decades, beginning with their cheering on America’s illegal, immoral, criminal war on Iraq 22 years ago. That war was designed then to end up toppling the Iranian regime in Tehran. Instead it backfired and didn’t.
Israel’s sneak attack enabled by duplicitous US diplomacy to lull Iran into complacency, has caused retaliatory strikes never before experienced in Israel’s 77 year existence. And they will get worse as Israel runs out of weapons to shoot down incoming missiles.
Steven Katz certainly knows all of this. But in the service of US and Israeli exceptionalism promoting world/regional dominance, he turns a blind eye. The Tribune’s readership deserves better.
Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL
Also by Walt Zlotow:
Tulsi Gabbard channeled wrong Secretary of State in supporting Trump’s preemptive attack on Iran
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“The real threat to Israel is Netanyahu” and raving rabid far right lunatics that he’s aligned himself with just to keep power.
Netanyahu has learned well how to defend Israel. Take a stroll back through the line up of PM’s who proceeded him, going all the way back to the first, Ben Gurion.
I agree with GL. Could see this coming years ago and warned of the danger of Netanyahu. Trying to preserve his own power against charges of impropriety he will do anything and sacrifice whatever lives for his own ends. He is doing more for the anti-semitic cause than any number of opponents. It is so sad. The Jewish people are amongst the world greatest and yet the enemy within is the problem.
I may have mentioned this before and apologies if I did:
However, in 1996 when I was at the time living in Hong Kong, I asked an Israeli academic what he thought of the appointment of B. Netanyahu as Prime Minister. “He will be a disaster for Israel” was the reply.
Netanyahu – now a wanted criminal for war crimes is a big friend of another criminal- DJTrump who has no idea of how he has been coaxed and led willingly, by Netanyahu into a possible conflagration in the M.East.
Israel bombed Iran first. Israel deliberately destroyed the peace negotiations by their bombing Iran. Israel has wanted to destroy Iran for ever and has – for 30 years – been going on about Iran’s capabilities to have a nuclear bomb.
In fact the only M.E. country which has atomic bomb capacity is Israel – which is not a signature to the non proliferation of nuclear weapons. It has not signed or ratified the treaty.
How can the Iranian government be directed to return to the peace talks table which they never left in the first place?
Israel never wanted the peace talks to succeed and deliberately scuppered them by bombing Iran.
Trump chooses to believe Netanyahu over his USA intelligence administration.
I’m – quite frankly – shocked that our Australian PM and Foreign Minister are not aligned with the fact that the USA’s precipitous bombing raid in Iran was completely out of order.
A pre-emptive attack is not acceptable when knowledge is incomplete.
Israel started this war and the ‘tame’ USA followed and even little ‘tame’ Australia is also licking USA’s boots.
Meanwhile, now we all wonder what may happen next.
Further to my comment: I leave a First Dog comment:
heguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2025/jun/23/world-war-3-whose-idea-was-that
It’s not just Netanyahu, but Trump, MAGA/Evangelicals, Anglosphere RW MSM, Putin and Russian emigrés.
Early days were the Central European post WWII emigrés, then ’70s the ‘born again’ US diaspora Jews migrating to Israel (many still remain & far right, see West Bank), then ’80s the Soviet Russians (inc. Romanians, Ukrainians etc. & now 2 mill Russians), then Morrison’s US Pentecostal mates waiting for ‘the Rapture’ etc.; become a far right authoritarian theist regime.
No secret, but avoided by Anglosphere media, the alliance between Putin and Netanyahu, with their ‘toy’ Trump in between; both Putin and Trump were central to a Netanyahu campaign several years ago (or last election).
The infamously secular Netanyahu has hosted European far right ratbags, while his alleged corruption* and his choice of like minded allies leaves little in the way of escape routes vs creating conflict.
*Alleged that decades ago that Netanyahu and wife left security people bewildered on his entitled behaviour, ie. not paying restaurant bills, on multiple occasions, shows evidence of narcissistic contempt?