Israel's Short-sighted Political Assassinations with Sharmine Narwani

No matter how bad the attack on Palestine gets, Israel seems to find a way to make it worse.

With a series of high-profile assassinations that threaten to spark a regional war, Israel has raised the stakes once again. On July 30, it targeted Hezbollah leader Fuad Shukr in Beirut. One day later, it killed Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ lead ceasefire negotiator, while he was in Tehran.

The killings sent shockwaves throughout the world, and both Hezbollah and Iran have vowed to respond, the former declaring that the war had entered a “new phase.” Could we be hurtling towards a wider, regional conflict?

To discuss this, MintCast host Mnar Adley is joined by Sharmine Narwani. Narwani is a Beirut-based journalist and political commentator. She is a columnist at The Cradle, a publication covering West Asia that seeks to represent millions of voices not heard in corporate Western media. Before joining The Cradle, she was a senior associate at St. Anthony’s College, Oxford.

Quoting Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, Narwani told Adley today that “Israel is crossing all kinds of red lines now,” and is acting in an increasingly “unhinged” manner, actions which fundamentally come from weakness and vulnerability. “Israel very clearly cannot fight its wars by itself. Facing just one adversary on one front, Israel required the active assistance of three Western nuclear powers and one regional Arab state (Jordan), to thwart the [recent] Iranian attack,” she said.

If Israel is indeed reliant on foreign powers, then that raises the worrying question of increased Western involvement in the region and the war. Already, NATO nations launched Operation Prosperity Guardian – an attempt to secure Red Sea shipping lines from Ansar Allah attacks.

This has largely failed, as Ansar Allah has held firm and managed to overcome incredible odds. “Yemen is the surprise of the Resistance Axis, and their unity of fronts,” Narwani said, adding:

Who would have thought that war-torn Yemen, severely depleted, with shortages of food, energy, medicines and basic supplies, without access to their ports…that they would rise up and become the star of the Axis, by just having the absolute nerve to hit the Americans, the British, the Saudis, the Emiratis, the Israelis.”

Narwani said that they have managed to do this because Yemenis do not read Western media and have, therefore, not been tamed into displaying “good behavior” toward the United States. Instead, they display an entirely different attitude.